Acumen Fund Pakistan

Investing in Sustainable Solutions to Poverty

-based approaches that provide low-income

communities with access to affordable health, housing, water and energy products and services.
Acumen Fund has been investing in Pakistan since 2002, with a total portfolio of more than $11 million
in committed investments in enterprises focusing on livestock productivity, access to rural micro-credit
for low income farmers, clean drinking water, affordable housing and alternate energy.
Patient Capital
Acumen exists to help end poverty by investing patient capital to
identify, strengthen and scale business models that effectively serve the
poor. This is a new, very innovative method of philanthropy maximizing the impact of donations by providing investments, not
grants, to social enterprises serving the poor. These enterprises
combine the efficiency of a business with a philanthropic objective, and
also ensure the investment has much more impact than a one time gift.
Currently, Acumen focuses on five critical sectors of water, health,
housing, energy and agriculture, with the education portfolio starting in
2011-12.
The enterprises we invest in need to demonstrate clear social impact
for helping the poor, and need to be working in our areas of focus.
Organizations typically have 1-2 years operating history with a vision to
scale at national, international or regional level, with an operational
model geared towards financial sustainability without relying on grants.

Pakistan Community
We have a diverse and vibrant community of Pakistani supporters
across the globe. Within Pakistan, we have active volunteer groups of
young professionals and students engaging their constituency in social
entrepreneurship awareness events. We have a local Advisory council
advising us on strategy and operations, and a group of pro-bono
service providers and community leaders we are proud to be
associated with.

Acumen Fund Pakistan

Acumen Fund has been
investing in Pakistan since 2002
- our portfolio is now over $11
million investments in ground
breaking social enterprises,
tackling some of the biggest
challenges to. Acumen Fund
Pakistan benefits from our
global
networks
while
leveraging strong relationships
with
local
businesses,
institutions and community
leaders. Acumen Fund Pakistan
is a tax exempt not for profit.

Contact Us
11-C, 4th Floor, 1st Commercial
Lane, Shahbaz Commercial, Phase
VI, DHA Karachi, Pakistan

T +92.21.3584.6430-2

Investments in Pakistan
Pharmagen Healthcare Ltd
$1.5 million
Pharmagen
provides
clean
drinking water in dense lowincome communities around
Lahore. This outlets use Reverse
Osmosis (RO) and UV filtration
process, innovatively selling open
water to cut out distribution and
packaging
costs,
allowing
Pharmagen water to be the
lowest priced RO water in the
local market at PKR 1.5 per liter.
With the Acumen investment,
PHL will scale up operations to 32
additional water outlets in
Lahore, reaching hundreds of
thousands of additional people
every day.

Ansaar Management Company

$1.1million
AMC is a low-cost housing
development and management
company which leverages the
crucial lessons and insights from
another
Acumen
Fund
investment, Saiban's Khuda ki
Basti (KKB) model, stressing selfreliance
and
community
development. AMC takes the
Saiban
incremental
housing
model further with a strong focus
on scalability and sustainability
through its for-profit, low-cost
approach. AMC has an initial
target of reaching over 2,500
lower income families in Pakistan
through its first project. They
have purchased land outside
Lahore for the project site.

Jassar Farms Private Ltd. (JFPL)

$1.5 million
JFPL is a dairy and breed
improvement project aiming to
increase milk productivity of low
income livestock farmers. JFPL
aims to establish a world class
semen production facility to
produce affordable, top-of-theline semen for the low income
dairy farmers. A hybrid herd of
cattle is already producing three
times the milk of their local
mothers, proving the potential
yield impact of using this artificial
insemination process. Jassar
Farms aims to produce 125,000
semen doses annually, impacting
more than 250,000 farming
families.

NRSP Bank
$2 million
Acumen Fund has partnered with
the National Rural Support
finance institution with a focus on
agriculture lending. The Bank will
be progressively carved-out from
existing operations,
providing a reliable source of
micro-credit to low income
farmers. The project will affect
over four million rural individuals
over the investment horizon,
across Punjab and Sindh. The
mission is to reduce the effects of
poverty by giving timely access to
commercially viable financial
products and services to the low
income masses of Pakistan

Other Investments &

Pipeline
Housing & Microfinance
Saiban
$0.39 MM invested

Kashf Foundation
$1.25 MM invested

Kashf Holding
$1.4 MM

Healthcare
First Micro Insurance Agency
$0.5 MM invested

Agriculture
Micro Drip
$0.5 MM invested

Pipeline
Maternal healthcare hospital
in Peshawar
Alternative energy from
biofuel
Alternate mini hydro energy

Pakistan Advisors
+ Zubyr Soomro, Advisory
Chairman, formerly Citigroup
Pakistan
+ Ahsan Jamil, Aman
Foundation
+ Ali Siddiqui, Jahangir
Siddiqui Private Equity
+ Farrokh Captain, Pakistan
Human Development Fund
+ Monis Rahman, Naseeb
Online Networks
+ Syed Babar Ali, Lahore
University of Management
Sciences
+ Zaffar A. Khan, formerly
Pakistan International Airlines

Acumen Fund Pakistan - Building Sustainable Solutions to Poverty

Acumen Fund Pakistan

Pharmagen Health Ltd

Clean drinking water in low income neighborhoods

Pharmagen purifies and distributes safe, clean and affordable

drinking water to low-income residents of Lahore through its chain
of open water shops. Water is affordably priced for low-income
customers, who pay only 1.5 rupees per liter.
investment, Pharmagen aims to open 32 new water shops,
supplying half a million people with clean water daily.
The Challenge
+ Tap water is the primary source of drinking water in urban cities
+ 40% of illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases
+ Providing safe, clean drinking water to low-income communities
through a Reverse Osmosis (RO) and UV filtration process at
affordable prices is a challenge
The Innovation
+ Pharmagen has reduced costs by decontralizing production
model, selling directly to dense low income urban communties.
+ Outlets sell open water, as well as distribute water to households
within a 2-3 km radius around the water plant in the peri-urban
areas of Lahore.
The Impact
+ Pharmagen is currenty operating RO plants selling open water at
PKR 1.5/liter
+ PHL plans to scale up from 4 outlets to 32 outlets around Lahore.
Currently, 17 new outlets have been opened in addition to the
existing 4. The total capacity is 600,000 L of water a day
+ Each outlet will have a capacity of 3000 liters per hour

Investment Overview
History
+
operations started in 2006 and it
is the first ISO 9001:2000 certified
and socially responsible health
care company. It is a strong
addition to the Pharmagen group
of
companies
focusing
on
providing a complete range of
both curative and preventive
Healthcare facilities in particularly
sub-urban / under privileged
areas of Pakistan.
+ Its aim is to improve the quality
of life by providing Quality
medicines & Quality services to
rural population of Pakistan to
enable them to improve their
quality of life

Entrepreneur: Parvez Sufi

+ Mr. Parvez Hussain Sufi has
been the Managing Director of
Pharmagen Limited since 1992,
and is a member of the Institute
of Chartered Accountants in
England and Wales and the
Institute
of
Chartered
Accountants
of
Pakistan.
+ He has received global
recognition
for
M.H.
Sufi
Foundation, a non-profit from
The
American
Biographical
Institute (ABI) , WHO's WHO
Historical Society.

Acumen Fund Investment

USD 1.5
(2010)

million

debt/equity