Eight Companies
PIC is really eight companies—so far. It comprises eight investments—seven announced and one pending—as of May. Like any fund, it’s a vehicle that lives—or dies—by the parts of its sum. So to ground those foundational elements and to ensure PIC not just survives but thrives (to steal a word from the current zeitgeist), it does something unusual: It advises and engages with a company’s management on everything from accounting to marketing.
“We want to obviously monitor our companies, but it’s more than that. We want to market our investments and see how they can actually be used on an everyday basis,” Reed says, adding, “we happen to have a lot of ... relationships that are just far reaching.”
Which is an understatement, of course, considering the networks of Parsons and Lauder.
This is how PIC’s own Web site describes Lauder: “International philanthropist, diplomat, public servant, entrepreneur, investor and patron of the arts, Ronald S. Lauder combines a deep commitment to his Jewish heritage with a global mastery of business to create a mosaic of philanthropic and professional endeavors that literally reaches around the world.”
Lauder, the son of the late Estée and Joseph Lauder, founders of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., the cosmetics giant, has been a U.S. ambassador, deputy assistant secretary of defense, and chairman of everything from public television companies to his foundation, well-known for doing a world of good.
PIC builds on that ethos. Of course, rather than philanthropy, its mission is to make money. More formally, PIC’s mission statement is “to identify, invest in and provide solutions that affect growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. As PIC invests, Africa profits.”
Understanding what PIC does is relatively easy: It’s an impact investment fund. Understanding how it does what it does is somewhat more nuanced, as Reed explained to me. It’s more of an embrace of the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” And then there is, above all, why PIC does what it does.
To be sure, it’s to create impact. And through its underlying holdings, it exemplifies how it accomplishes that mission.
Built On Individuals
Rahama Wright is a perfect example of the type of entrepreneur PIC invests in.
Born to Peace Corps volunteers, Wright followed in her parents’ footsteps. She did her Peace Corps stint in Mali. “I saw extreme poverty, especially with women,” Wright tells me, afire with energy and passion for her business solution to helping women in Africa.
But while in the Peace Corps, she says she felt helpless. “These people didn’t need another Peace Corps volunteer; they needed money, or a doctor.”
While Wright isn’t a doctor, she is business savvy. And she noticed African women harvesting shea trees for their seeds. Shea seed extract can be turned into oil and butter and is widely used in the cosmetics industry.
“But there was a disconnect between the market and these women,” Wright explains. Women were selling shea seeds at 15 cents to 30 cents a pound. Yet the broker to whom they were selling was turning around and selling it to producers at two dollars a pound.
Wright decided to fix the gap to increase incomes and in turn improve the quality of lives for people in the village by creating a co-op. She began her company, Shea Yeleen International, in which PIC is now an investor.
Wright’s original goal was to increase incomes to middle-class status—$150 per month. She is on her way to doing that. But she also very quickly realized that there was a global opportunity with her brand. Her body care line produces soaps, lip balms and body butters available in over 40 Whole Foods stores in the U.S. She has attracted world-class talent: Michelle Sitton, a Fortune 100 experienced brand builder, has joined Wright’s team. And Lauder’s connections in the cosmetics industry don’t hurt, either.
“We’ve created a model supply chain to value chain that shows individual and financial impact. I know the women in the co-op, and they know me,” Wright says proudly.
Beyond growing the brand and improving more lives, Wright is also eyeing the gap between producers and consumers’ knowledge of where their products come from. Sitton says a magical and powerful formula can be created if consumers rethink their personal relationship with the world through the products they buy.
Wright, whose mother is Ghanian and whose father is American, is bringing together two worlds that she, if you think about it, actually emblems. And she is thriving.
“I want to build her up to get to the second stage like a proper Series B,” Reed says. “Then you bring in more traditional investors. She needs the help.
Anyway, why is this important? The two heads of the co-ops came here to New York. They were in my conference room, and I just asked them to tell me their story. I had goosebumps. I taped it. I was that moved. [One of the women told] me that for five generations they’ve lived in poverty. Since meeting her, Rahama, the poverty level was $25 a month. Now they make $75 a month. They can send their kids to school.”
The obvious benefit for Wright is PIC’s investment. But the relationship extends beyond the value of capital and hits at the heart of PIC’s mission: as PIC invests, Africa profits.
The Starting Seven
PIC invests as much as $5 million per deal across myriad sectors, but with an eye for health care, education and technology. They’re aiming at the “village level.”
Here are the seven company investments in PIC’s portfolio to date:
• Binu (binu.com ) is an app developer that gives basic mobile phones smartphone features such as Internet access and downloadable apps.
• PrePex (prepex.com ) makes devices used for safe, non-surgical adult male circumcision in resource-limited settings as a means to prevent the spread of HIV.
• Trunity (trunity.com) produces digital textbooks and course materials that can by delivered via computer “cloud” service.
• Daily Secret (dailysecret.com) is a digital media brand for travelers around the world that covers Africa and 35 other markets.
• Bridge International Academies (bridgeinternationalacademies.com) is the world’s largest chain of primary and pre-primary schools, bringing world-class education to the poorest of the poor. Its goal is to educate 10 million children across a dozen countries by 2015.
• Shea Yeleen (sheayeleen.com) is a natural skin care products company.
• Mobius Motors (mobiusmotors.com) designs, manufactures and sells durable, affordable vehicles for Africa’s mass market.