LeapFrog Investments’ portfolio companies now employ 102,438 people in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“Nothing sustains a family more than a secure job. Each job typically supports a family of five in our focus countries, while benefiting the wider community,” says Dr Andrew Kuper, LeapFrog’s CEO and founder. “For the past three years, our financial services companies have grown revenue on average by 43 per cent, creating jobs at a breathtaking pace. This is profit-with-purpose capitalism at scale.”
The jobs figure is double the commitment LeapFrog made at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2012, to support 50,000 jobs by 2020. It was achieved in half the time.
LeapFrog measures its impact via a proprietary measurement system that provides a detailed accounting of value created, both financial and social. Of the people employed, 81,222 provide financial advice and client education. The majority now use mobile technologies to deliver lower-cost insurance, savings, credit or pensions to their local communities.
“We are also pleased to announce that our companies now reach 84.8 million people. 67.7 million of those individuals are emerging consumers,” says Kuper. “2.5 million people were added in just the past quarter.”
All companies in which LeapFrog invests focus on emerging consumers, the four billion people globally who live on under USD10 a day yet are rising rapidly into security and prosperity.
LeapFrog recently announced that it has now obtained commitments of over USD1 billion from some of the world’s leading institutional investors, and that it has expanded beyond financial services to also invest in companies providing healthcare at scale.
“Between the twin forces of saturated mature markets and a rising tide of mistrust of the establishment, these innovative firms offer a new way forward,” says Kuper. “They inspire us all to reinvent the way we do business across the world.”
