Senior Portfolio Associate at Acumen

Job Description

• We seek a committed and enthusiastic Senior Portfolio Associate to join our Lagos-based team; we are seeking candidates with at least 4 - 8 years of experience in impact investing to help build and manage an investment portfolio of impact-driven early-stage companies across West Africa.
• The Senior Portfolio Associate will be joining a small team managing and building a portfolio of game-changing companies focused on tackling poverty in West Africa.
• Since 2012, Acumen West Africa has invested in 12 companies reaching over 23M lives in the region.
• We are committed to the principles of inclusive capital and to growing a portfolio of locally founded businesses.
• The team is responsible for managing investments and finding, vetting and structuring new investments in companies that serve low-income West Africans in our two sectors of focus: Energy and Agriculture.

The Role

• The Senior Associate will serve as relationship manager for several portfolio companies, establishing trust-based relationships with CEOs and management teams, co-creating annual plans for post-investment support to help the company overcome operational challenges as related to finance, talent, sales, and governance, for example.
• The Senior Associate will source and evaluate new investment opportunities, conduct due diligence on high potential opportunities, and assist with structuring deal terms and presenting to the Investment Committee.
• The Senior Associate will use their investing skills to evaluate the growth and return potential of companies from both a financial and social impact perspective.
• They will also be responsible for coordinating relationships with select portfolio companies and represent Acumen in boards as a Director or Observer.
• The Senior Associate will manage reporting and analysis related to Acumen West Africa’s investment portfolio and its performance, fundraising and strategic partnership initiatives, and management of portfolio operations.
• They will contribute to actively building and cultivating Acumen West Africa networks in the impact investing communities and will contribute to developing insight and communication pieces for external audiences.
• The Senior Associate will have the responsibility of coordinating Acumen West Africa’s impact assessments, liaising with portfolio companies, the Insights and Strategy team, and  external impact vendors.

Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Post Investment Support and Metric Evaluation:

• Assess portfolio company needs related to post-investment support; design and implement post-investment interventions in coordination with senior team members, which may include direct support or leveraging external experts
• Manage design, implementation and reporting for technical assistance grants provided to companies to overcome operational challenges
• Design and evaluate key metrics to measure the social and financial returns on investments.
• Develop a network of advisors including funders, thought leaders, sector and functional experts to help with post investment support.
• Represent Acumen, on the boards of certain portfolio companies, in coordination with senior team members.

 Identifying investment opportunities and due diligence:

• Identifying, cultivating, and reviewing a pipeline of early-stage investment opportunities providing critical services to communities in West Africa
• Conducting due diligence and investment analysis, including financial modeling, valuation review and structuring
• Preparing and presenting investment documentation for review to the Portfolio team before presenting it to Acumen West Africa Investment Committee

Portfolio Operations:

• Work with the Acumen West Africa team to: (i) Analyze and document data-driven explanations for portfolio decisions; (ii) Extract and document investment-specific and general insights; (iii) Analyze metrics data to identify patterns; and (iv) Channel that data to outputs for marketing and fundraising efforts.

Impact Assessments:

• Work as coordinator of relevant impact assessments undertaken by Acumen West Africa, liaising as needed, with relationship managers, portfolio companies, global Insights & Strategy team and External service providers.

Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor's Degree in Actuarial Science, Business Administration, Economics, or any related field
• 4 - 8 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, or investment banking; management consulting or investment management, including experience with financial and operational due diligence of early-stage businesses. In lieu of investment experience, strong operational experience will be considered.
• Superior financial and business analysis skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; ability to present arguments and analysis to Acumen management, partners, and investees.
• Ability to take initiative with research and analysis and produce valuable results in conditions of uncertainty.
• Operational skills including problem solving and project management skills, including ability to work and deliver projects independently, proactively and under pressure.
• Familiarity with the social enterprise and impact investing sectors; demonstrated commitment to tackling challenges of poverty is preferred.
• Self-reflective and aligned with Acumen values.
• Permanently authorized to work in Nigeria.