STEPHEN BRENNINKMEIJER

Transcription

1 STEPHEN BRENNINKMEIJER COUNTRY INVOLVED IN IMPACT INVESTING SINCE %-AGE OF WEALTH IN IMPACT INVESTING UK, Europe % APPROACH private equity in social enterprises; angel investing (debt &equity) ORIGIN/SIZE OF WEALTH inherited & family business xxx THE STORY... Stephen Brenninkmeijer is a private investor and entrepreneur, interested in microfinance, education and social entrepreneurship. Stephen is a 5 th generation Brenninkmeijer, a German- Dutch family who founded the C&A chain of retail clothing stores in C&A is owned by the COFRA Group, which is the holding company of the Brenninkmeijer family. Having studied at the EBS University in Germany, Stephen joined the family business in 1975 and worked there for 30 years in the USA, Japan and across Europe, including the UK. In 2001 Stephen looked to change his career within the family business. Having considered philanthropic activities, the concept of venture philanthropy drew Stephen s attention. What intrigued me was an approach to investing to create value within developing markets in a very entrepreneurial way. He decided that was the best way forward. He went to a lot of conferences: I took some time off simply to gain some experience and to learn and listen to people. In one such conference, he met Klaus Tischhauser, who was developing a concept of investing in financial infrastructure in the developing world, with microfinance being one of the tools. These ideas resonated with Stephen, who was a founding trustee of NFTE UK (Network of Teaching Entrepreneurship), a London-based charity that teaches low-income youth how to build businesses. With that approach you help people to understand what they are good at, show them their hidden talents. Normally they were told, You are useless. Through NFTE, you could convince kids that they could actually become entrepreneurs. It s about unlocking a mind-set within the person; making the person hungry to do something. By doing so, you create a massive impact with relatively little! Through his involvement with NFTE Stephen could see that while changing the mindset was relatively easy, the next barrier for such entrepreneurs-to-be was capital: Providing them with capital on one hand, but by helping them understand how to run business, you could double the impact. Stephen and Klaus decided to join forces. They made a deal Stephen would help Klaus create responsability (a social investment platform), by becoming his first investor. In return, Klaus would help Stephen create a social investment fund that Stephen named Andromeda. I invest in you and you invest in me. responsability and Andromeda were developed in parallel. Stephen and Klaus continuously discussed and evaluated their ideas about investing with impact and moving beyond traditional philanthropy by looking at their goals, rigorously analysing them, and questioning themselves: Can we actually do it? Are we the right people to do it? Are we true to ourselves? Stephen pitched the Andromeda fund idea within Cofra and was successful in securing an initial capital allocation. Andromeda was the first private Bottom-of-the-Pyramid fund, aimed at investing in the best entrepreneurial talent (i.e. high growth, innovative ventures) in the developing world and the enterprises that support them. The Andromeda team consisted primarily of Stephen and Klaus, who worked closely together in originating deals and analysing them; with Stephen actively involved in managing investments by assuming board positions, helping companies strategically, and by using his network to open doors. With several private equity/venture funds being initiated by other family members, a shared infrastructure called the Entrepreneurs Fund was created with dedicated legal, financial and strategy resources supporting these funds. Stephen and the other family members reported to the head of the Entrepreneurs Fund, an experienced private equity investor. We were learning about investing as we went and this structure provided the necessary guidance...and helped us avoid some mistakes. It worked well. During the next 4 years, Stephen went to work investing in 7 businesses in Europe, Africa and the USA. They covered a broad spectrum: building social finance and micro credit platforms servicing bottom of the pyramid markets, a handicraft retailer sourcing from developing countries, an innovative drug delivery and vaccination company, a refurbisher of second-hand computers in South Africa and a mobile telephone network in rural areas in East Africa. It was a demanding and interesting time, with a lot of pressure to perform, but also excitement about the promise of using private capital to make a social change, while earning a good financial return. 1

2 As in any venture capital fund, some of Stephen s investments were very successful, others not so, offering many valuable experiences for his new projects. He was fortunate to exit the mobile telephone network company after only holding it for 8 months, tripling his money. He lost money on two businesses, having to write off investment in the handicraft retailer and the computer refurbisher. responsability, which later grew into one of the leading asset managers for social investments with US$ 870 m of assets currently under management, took time to develop. Stephen at that time held the largest single stake in the company and was prepared to be patient with his investment, believing that it will be a success at the end. In 2006, Cofra decided to redirect their investment portfolio towards faster growing renewable energy platform vs. social and microfinance space. As a result, the Andromeda fund was closed, with some of its investments being transferred to the Entrepreneurs Fund and others being bought out by Stephen. In 2007, Stephen retired from Cofra and started his own impact investment vehicle, Willows Investments. Today, he continues to pursue his passion for social entrepreneurs and uses his personal assets and experience to support promising companies and funds with a social mission. He has invested in People Tree, Bridges Social Entrepreneurs Fund, Phorms, Social Venture Fund and other highpotential projects, some of which have already produced exceptional returns. He is a board member of NFTE, Schwab Foundation and responsability. Andromeda has proven to be a great success, having returned 23% (see table below for details) and was catalytic in providing the much needed starting capital and strategic support to a number of social ventures that went on to achieve significant impact and commercial success. Stephen s impact investing journey continues. Combining investing with social mission has taught me many lessons and strengthened my passion and my conviction. This new strength has enabled me to deal with difficult situations and become a better human being. THE STRUCTURE... START OF ACTIVITY DEFINITION OF IMPACT INVESTING IMPACT STARTEGY Andromeda Fund: Willows Investments: 2007-now Investing in catalytic socially-driven and commercially viable concepts/companies in the areas of financial services for the poor, education, health and enabling infrastructure for social entrepreneurship. Andromeda Fund: private equity investments aimed at supporting entrepreneurship both in the developed and in the developing world. Venture capital investments for start-up companies in developing countries, or those supplying to/sourcing from developing countries, or active in disadvantaged areas in developed countries. Willows Investments: Focus on early stage investing in non-listed companies and funds with a social mission. Various instruments, i.e. investing in funds, seed investments in equity, debt investments. SOURCE OF CAPITAL Andromeda Fund: funding from Cofra Group (family holding). Willows Investments: personal assets and reinvestment of returns. RETURN EXPECTATION Andromeda: 15% financial IRR Willows Investments: depending on the instrument, 3-4% on debt investments, 5-15%+ on equity investments. Stephen is a financial first impact investor; interested in opportunities that could provide attractive returns but willing to take higher risks by investing early on. 2

3 PRINCIPAL S ROLE Andromeda Fund: CEO, active involvement in all the aspects of the Andromeda fund (80% time spend) Willows Investments: depends on the type of investing, often - strategic involvement on boards and some operational involvement. This activity takes approx 50% of Stephen s time. TEAM/ USE OF EXTERNAL ADVISERS Andromeda Fund: Stephen led the deal analysis (private equity) together with his partner. Supported by the Entrepreneurs Fund experts in finance, legal and strategy. No external advisers used. Willows Investments: Stephen leads the investment due diligence with the support of a financial analyst and a legal expert. No external advisers used. ORIGINATING DEALS Andromeda Fund: deal origination through strategic partners (including development finance institutions IFC, FMO), conferences (TBLI) and general networking. Willows Investments: Stephen is well-known and has a steady flow of interesting impact investing deals. He used the same origination channels as above; finds his fund investments to be a good origination and vetting platform (directly by seeing deals and by linking to other investors). He has also seen some interesting deals through Ashoka and Schwab Foundation. PROCESS: MEASURING & ANALYSING IMPACT: Andromeda Fund: Active origination of investments, followed by detailed due diligence including personal meeting(s) with the management teams and field trips. Proprietary impact scorecard used for screening. Deals approved by the Investment Committee consisting of Entrepreneurs Fund management (initial concept approval and final approval upon completion of due diligence). Milestone investing (splitting the investment in several tranches with a subsequent capital infusion conditional upon investee company reaching certain milestones). Willows Investments: Stephen leads the investment process with his analyst going over the accounts and projects and legal council structuring term sheets and participating in final negotiations. Stephen takes part in field trips and meets management teams, thoroughly checks references and finds useful to speak to the investors that declined to invest in the deal. Andromeda Fund: Developed a screening methodology that sets minimum standards: a) fits with Andromeda finance-trade-solution cluster, b) relates to Bottom-of-the-Pyramid needs, c) has professional management, d) can yield min. ROE 10%, e) can be exited within 6-7 years; f) services/product should have no negative effect on society and environment. Impact was measured, primarily by number of people reached. Apart from responsability, no quantitative methodology used. Willows Investments: same as above, but more qualitative measurement. 3

4 IMPACT PORTFOLIO AND RESULTS ACHIEVED: Andromeda Fund: Investment /Impact PC refurbisher in South Africa Type Date Invested Investment Realized Impact Area Financial Return, IRR equity & loans Bridge the Digital Divide write-off (91%) Microfinance equity fund equity st mobile phone company in East Africa with access to rural areas. Handicraft retailer sourcing from developing countries Lending to small businesses in developing countries and transition economies Social investment platform focussed Access to financial services for the poor Poverty alleviation by facilitating entrepreneurship 6.8% 147% equity and loan Poverty alleviation write-off Access to finance for the poor/ development of SMEs Access to financial services for the poor 20.2% Total Realized 23.0% IRR * 4.2% Innovative breath-powered nasal delivery technology equity not realized Cheaper & more effective vaccination programs for the developing world valued above net asset value *Source: principal calculation, only realized investments included. Willows Investments: Willows current impact portfolio is shown below. While most of the investments are unrealized, some have already produced great results. Last year, Stephen had 2 partial exits realizing 32.6% and 32.5% returns over the respective holding periods of 3 and 10 years. One of his unrealized investments is currently valued at 1.67x money; another performs above expectations. Some companies have struggled, for example, Stephen was severely diluted on one of his investments when, following unsatisfactory performance and over-indebtedness, the new capital had to be raised at significantly lower valuation. He will be glad if he can recover his capital. Social Stock Exchange PHILANTHROPIC ENGAGEMENTS 4

5 THAT SUCCEEDED One of the most successful investments in the Andromeda Fund was a mobile phone company in The company was based in Holland and developed a mobile phone network in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It also worked on cashless payment technology through mobile phones. The company was sold within 8 months to an investor from Kuwait. Our return was very impressive. In 2004, it was a risky bet, nobody knew whether it would work. We measured the impact with the number of people we were reaching in Africa. Key success factors? clearly an experienced and motivated founder team supported by a professional co-investors (private equity fund, IFC and FMO) who invested very large amounts. And a bit of luck. THAT DID NOT... One of our major challenges was an investment in 2002 into a South African social enterprise, based in Cape Town. The company refurbished second-hand computers from Europe and the States and sold them in South Africa. The company s mission was to spread the use of IT in developing countries. It was our purpose to contribute to bridging the digital divide in areas such as health, education, media and business. The investment demanded a significant amount of time and personal engagement from us, and it was very difficult to control and monitor the company, especially from oversees. Furthermore, we were not able to fulfil the criteria on black empowerment and we failed in finding a trustworthy, local investment partner. The investment required additional capital infusions and the local management could not execute the business properly. Finally I closed my part of the business after two years and had to write off almost the whole investment. This venture was a very engaging and convincing story, which we often used to explain the philosophy of Andromeda fund. However, controlling and driving the business from a distance was a near-impossible task, and not having a startegic co-investor in the region made it difficult to correct the situation in time. 5