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Andrew Kuper | |
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Born | South Africa |
Nationality | South African, Australian |
Alma mater | Harvard University Witwatersrand University University of Cambridge (PhD) |
Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, businessman, investor and author |
Known for | CEO, founder, LeapFrog Investments [1] |
Andrew Kuper AO is a South African-Australian serial entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets. [2] As a pioneer of Profit with Purpose business, [3] Kuper has been credited with the birth of a virtuous new asset class. [4] He is The founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments, a specialist investor in emerging markets, investing in financial services and healthcare. [5]
Former United States President Bill Clinton announced the launch of the company in 2008, recognising it for opening new frontiers in alternative investing. [6] LeapFrog has since attracted more than US$2 billion from global investors. [7] In 2017, Fortune ranked LeapFrog Investments as one of the top 5 Companies to Change the World, alongside Apple and Novartis. [8] Originally from South Africa, Kuper now resides in Sydney, Australia [9] and spends time in LeapFrog's offices in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Kuper was born in South Africa and brought up on a farm outside of Johannesburg. He is the son of anti-apartheid campaigners. [10] He began investing at the age of 10 and took on his first clients at age 13. [11] He attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg [12] followed by Harvard University, where he won the Henry Fellowship. He later graduated from Cambridge University with a PhD in social science and political science supervised by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. [2] [13]
In 2004, Kuper was appointed to managing director at Ashoka, an organization finances thousands of social entrepreneurs. [14] Among other roles, he ran the Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship, working with Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Abed of BRAC. [15] [16]
In 2007, Kuper founded LeapFrog Investments. Using a distinctive 'profit with a purpose' approach, LeapFrog invests in companies that provide access to financial services, healthcare and climate solutions to underserved people in emerging markets. [10] [2] [17] [18] Since its establishment, as chief executive, Kuper has helped attract over $2 billion from global investors including Temasek, [19] AIA, [20] American International Group Inc. (AIG), Swiss Re AG, AXA SA and Prudential Financial. [21] [22] The companies in which the firm has invested have had an annual growth rate of more than 24% and reach 492 million people in 30 countries.
LeapFrog launched its Climate Investing Strategy in 2022, [23] marking a natural extension of the firm’s journey as a pioneer of impact investing, backing companies that deliver essential services and products that enable lower-income consumers to build better lives.
In 2018, Kuper was awarded the John S. Bickley Founders Award Gold Medal for Excellence by the International Insurance Society recognised for his pioneering work in profit with purpose investment. [24] Earlier in his career, Kuper received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. [25] He was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, [26] and received the Young Presidents' Organization's Social Engagement Network Award. Kuper has delivered keynote addresses to the Clinton Global Initiative, Geneva Association CEO Meetings, the IFC/Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) summits, and the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year event. [17] He is a board member of GPCA. [27]
In 2022, Kuper was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to the impact investing industry, to global business leadership, and to financial inclusion". [28]
Kuper is the editor and lead author of one book on governance and globalisation, Global Responsibilities (Routledge, 2005) and the author of another, Democracy Beyond Borders (Oxford, 2004). [29]
Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited is a Singaporean state-owned multinational investment firm. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek has a net portfolio of US$288 billion as of 2024, with S$33 billion divested and S$26 billion invested during the year. Headquartered at Orchard Road, Singapore, it has 13 offices in 9 countries around the world, including in Beijing, Brussels, Hanoi, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Washington D.C.
Prudential plc is a British-domiciled multinational insurance and asset management company headquartered in London and Hong Kong. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working people.
Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the United States and in over 40 other countries. In 2019, Prudential was the largest insurance provider in the United States with $815.1 billion in total assets.
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Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an alignment of an investor's beliefs and values with the allocation of capital to address social and/or environmental issues.
Prudential Securities, formerly known as Prudential Securities Incorporated (PSI), was an American financial services arm of the insurer, Prudential Financial. In 2003, Prudential Securities was merged into Wachovia Securities, a division of Wachovia Bank.
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LeapFrog Investments is a South African-Australian private equity firm that invests in high-growth financial services, healthcare and climate solutions companies in emerging markets in Africa and Asia.
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