Christopher Emmott, Associate Director, Investing in Energy Access, Acumen

When we're looking at a new investment, the number one thing we're looking for is around product-market fit. That's understanding, have you really identified a problem for your customers? Are you building a solution which someone is willing to pay for?

Product-market fit can be demonstrated through having paying customers. That is, not paying customers who have been supported through a grant or something that is subsidized, but actually, a paying customer you can build and expand on - a sustainable customer you can scale with.

We're also looking at understanding your impact. That is, how is your solution impacting the lives of people living in poverty who are not necessarily the people paying for your service? They might be other people in your value chain that you're impacting through your solution.

These things don't need to be totally set. You could certainly be on the journey working towards these things. A key thing is to understand, what are some of those major issues you have found solutions for? What do you still not know and what assumptions are you still making?

We're always looking for the team. You have a passionate team who really has capabilities in key areas. Perhaps that's business development or financial management, so you do have all those bases covered and you're ready to take things to the next level.

The third item is do you have a realistic business plan? Do you understand what you're actually raising for and how you're going to use that money to scale? Is it built on the evidence of what you've achieved so far?  

You're not just going from nothing to being huge overnight. It does take time to grow. Is your business plan actually taking that into account and realistic in how it's projecting things moving forward?

Key takeaways 

Are you ready to scale? 

• Demonstrated product-market fit that includes sustainable paying customers and evidence of impact

• Passionate team with the skills and capabilities to scale key operations

• Realistic evidence-based business plan