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New non-executive chairman joins impact investing pioneer as industry sees influx of global talent and institutional capital
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Dominic will support further scale-up of LeapFrog following $500m commitment from Temasek in 2021, the largest ever commitment to a dedicated impact investor.
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LeapFrog plans to launch new funds and strengthen commitment to financial inclusion and health to reach 1 billion emerging consumers by 2030.
LeapFrog Investments, the Profit with Purpose investment firm, announced the appointment of Dominic Barton as non-executive Chairman of its Management Board, effective 1 April. Dominic was formerly Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company and was most recently Canada’s Ambassador to China. He accepts this appointment at an inflection point for the impact investing industry as firms attract global leaders and top-tier institutional capital.
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“Dominic is widely recognised as one of the most respected and connected executives in the world, and is the ideal person to mentor and support LeapFrog’s leadership during this expansion phase”
LeapFrog is the world’s largest dedicated equity impact investor. The firm has raised $2 billion to invest in purpose-driven businesses and its companies now reach 272 million people in 35 countries.
Dominic said: ”I am very excited to join LeapFrog and help scale this ground-breaking platform. Having previously sat on LeapFrog’s Global Leadership Council, I believe in the mission and look forward to supporting Founder Dr. Andy Kuper and the team as they take LeapFrog to the next level.
“There are nearly four billion emerging consumers, and by 2025 their spending power will surpass US $30 trillion. At the same time, we are seeing a groundswell of institutional investors seeking to do well by doing good. These factors, combined with LeapFrog’s phenomenal expertise investing in companies built on the latest technologies including healthtech, fintech, insurtech and genomic medicine, position LeapFrog for exponential impact.”
Dominic will support LeapFrog as it makes ever more investments in private companies in Asia and Africa, accelerates its fundraising, diversifies its investor base, and enhances its magnet for global impact investing talent. LeapFrog has announced it aims to reach 1 billion emerging consumers with essential services by 2030, while aiming to deliver top-tier returns to investors.
“Dominic is widely recognised as one of the most respected and connected executives in the world, and is the ideal person to mentor and support LeapFrog’s leadership during this expansion phase,” said LeapFrog CEO Dr Andy Kuper. “His experience in emerging markets over many decades, from his birth in Uganda to his leadership of McKinsey across Asia and globally, has uniquely prepared him to govern and guide our next leaps. His expertise in responsible investing and standard-setting will help ensure we continue to innovate and lead the industry with authenticity. No one builds trust and partnerships, from the grassroots to the treetops, like Dom – and that is the foundation of sustainable success and distinctive impact.”
Dominic’s appointment caps a period of rapid capacity building at LeapFrog, following a $500 million strategic partnership with Temasek announced in 2021, the largest ever single commitment to a dedicated impact investor. Since then, the firm has bolstered its leadership team with senior appointments from across the private equity and impact industries, including alumni of CVC Capital, Cinven, the IFC-World Bank and Bain & Company.
Dominic’s leadership in developing responsible investing strategies and impact metrics stretches back decades. He was one of several co-founders of the non-profit organisation Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLTGlobal), which has a mission to focus capital on the long term to support a sustainable economy. He was Chairman of the IIRC, the benchmark global accounting standard for purpose-driven investments.
He also has a long history in emerging markets. Dominic was Asia Chairman for McKinsey between 2004 and 2009. After, while leading McKinsey as Global Managing Partner, he helped to launch Generation, a training and work placement program active across developing markets including India and Kenya, which has now graduated over 50,000 young people.
Dominic has held senior leadership positions at major business organisations and philanthropies serving Asian and African markets, including as a Member of Singapore Economic Development Board’s International Advisory Council, Seoul International Business Advisory Council, UN’s HeForShe Initiative, and as a board member of the Malala Fund and Mastercard Foundation.
LeapFrog was the first equity investor dedicated to social impact to reach $1 billion in investor commitments and last year became the first to raise $2 billion. LeapFrog was also the first impact investor worldwide to announce an independent impact audit against the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM), the industry standards overseen by the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank. The Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) now estimates the global impact investing market is valued at $715 billion.
In the past year alone, LeapFrog’s portfolio companies have paid out $533 million in insurance claims and $289 million in pensions to low-income people, disbursed $16.4 billion in loans, enabled $6 billion in remittances, provided 23 million quality pharmaceutical products, manufactured 11 million orthopaedic, pain management and mobility products, and delivered over 733,000 medical services.
Dr Andy Kuper, CEO and Founder of LeapFrog Investments, said: “Since I founded LeapFrog in 2007, we have reached over 272 million people in emerging markets with healthcare or financial tools, 200 million of whom earn less than $10 a day. We have developed a proprietary impact measurement tool, collecting millions of data points on the needs and experiences of low-income consumers. Over the years, our team has built a complex picture of emerging consumers: the barriers to access that prevent them joining the financial system and receiving quality healthcare, and the affordability issues that typically come from lamentable translation of developed market business models into emerging markets. We have learned through this long and patient journey to listen to emerging consumers, and to find and enable companies that design products and distribution around the realities of life in Africa and emerging Asia.
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“In my conversations with Dominic, this point was one we revisited many times. LeapFrog has diligently built a robust world-leading platform for impact investing in emerging markets, and the next step in our journey is to scale this platform rapidly to meet rising needs in health and wealth that transformatively improve quality of life for low-income people.
“There is no better evidence for the magnetism and promise of LeapFrog’s vision than to have attracted a non-executive Chairman of Dominic’s quality, integrity, and experience.”
Dominic Barton, incoming Chairman at LeapFrog Investments, said: “LeapFrog’s team and portfolio companies are championing a new kind of capitalism that unlocks opportunity for billions of low-income people. Through a trove of insights, data and experience, the team has built powerful connections with emerging consumers and is well positioned to multiply in size and impact.
“Through a portfolio of innovative companies, they have pioneered new ways to deliver insurance and banking to Kenyans and Ugandans earning less than $10 a day. They have offered genomic diagnostics in India at a twentieth of the cost paid by US customers. They have tackled surging rates of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and obesity with digitised healthcare apps in South Asia. They have found new ways to lend to workers with limited documentation, using algorithmic underwriting tools, across a host of countries. I am excited to help them build on this progress during an exciting time in their growth journey.”
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