The human face of capitalism

SUZANNE BELLING

He did it with LeapFrog Investments, a billion dollar company that today has multinational interests. It is involved in supporting over 100 000 jobs and shows the human face of capitalism and globalisation through doing good.

Former US President Bill Clinton, who Kuper met through a friend, was so impressed by the new company. Clinton invited Kuper to share the stage with him at the 2008 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. This is an annual gathering of global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Clinton was impressed by Kuper’s ambitious plans and vision for LeapFrog – to transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world and help pull them out of poverty.

The company serves close to 100 million people in many countries, not by providing aid, but by investing in companies. It selects companies, mainly in insurance and healthcare, to provide opportunities for people and keep them healthy. LeapFrog also helps these indigenous companies to expand and grow.

Kuper attended Woodmead School in Johannesburg, a multiracial institution even under apartheid, and then King David. After a BA from Wits, he was given a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he completed the MPhil and doctorate in political philosophy degrees. He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a visiting scholar at Harvard.

From there, Kuper moved to New York and Washington DC, followed by a brief stint in Delhi, India. He now lives in Sydney, Australia.

In India in the late 1990s, he worked in the desert in Rajasthan.

“I realised that farmers and others had many opportunities to improve their families’ situation, like planting new seeds or drip irrigation,” he told the SA Jewish Report.

“But they didn’t take the risk, because they lacked a safety net – and failure meant their children could starve.

“This made me realise the importance of insurance, as well as other protective financial services.”

He said LeapFrog has been in the forefront of “profit with purpose”, putting together “money and meaning”. 

This is impact investing – “when you intentionally invest in companies to achieve both financial rewards and social impact – generating returns while changing lives.

“Some people think it is impossible to make money while doing good. But we often find that exciting businesses want to partner with the good guys. Moreover, company leaders and teams who have a driving and shared purpose tend to outperform more conventional companies.

 “LeapFrog invests in financial services and healthcare companies that serve excluded and emerging consumers – the four billion people globally who live on under US$10 a day.

“There are powerful business models to reach many millions of people with quality and affordable tools, so they can lift themselves and their families into secure existence,” he said.

“Working in Africa and emerging Asia is constantly exhilarating and challenging and ultimately very worthwhile. Our first investment was in AllLife, an amazing company in South Africa, that provides insurance and wellness services to people living with HIV or diabetes.

“AllLife has grown at an incredible rate, while providing protection to people often excluded from not just insurance, but the economy, because without insurance you struggle to get a home, business or education loan.

“We also own stakes in inspiring African companies like Resolution Insurance in Kenya, Jumo which provides loans via mobile across many African countries, Petra which is Ghana’s leading pension provider and UT Life and ARM Life respectively in Ghana and Nigeria.

Backed by many of the world’s leading institutional investors, LeapFrog is now the largest dedicated equity investor in financial services and healthcare for emerging consumers.

Kuper has gained wide recognition for his work as an investor and entrepreneur, apart from being the author of two books and many articles on globalisation and governance.

He has been hailed by Clinton for “opening up new frontiers for alternative investment” and The Economist group for demonstrating how “to change the way we invest as individuals, institutions and societies”.

For his work as a pioneer of profit with purpose business, Kuper won the Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2013. He was selected as a Davos World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2012.

He also received the Social Engagement Networks (SEN) Leadership award from among the 25 000 chief executive members of the international Young Presidents Organisation.