Andrew Kuper
Founder & CEOLeapFrog Investments
Dr. Andrew Kuper is a pioneer of Profit with Purpose investing, and a unique contributor to the insurance industry closing the global protection gap. He has been hailed by President Clinton for “opening up new frontiers for alternative investment” and by the Economist Group for demonstrating how "to change the way we invest as individuals, institutions and societies".
Dr. Kuper founded LeapFrog Investments in 2007, to invest in insurance companies serving low-income and rising consumers. LeapFrog is now the largest dedicated equity investor in financial services and healthcare, across emerging markets. Portfolio companies serve over 130 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, 110 million of whom are low-income or underserved. Many are accessing quality insurance, savings, pensions, credit, payments or healthcare for the first time.
Ten years in, LeapFrog’s performance has also shifted mindsets in the capital markets: From the time of investment, Leapfrog portfolio companies have grown on average 40 % per year. They support 119,598 jobs in 33 countries. Portfolio companies have been sold to the likes of Prudential Plc, Swiss Re, XL Catlin, Standard Chartered and Fidelity. Global investors, including many of the world's leading financial institutions and nine of the world’s largest insurance groups, have committed over $1 billion to four different LeapFrog funds. In 2017, LeapFrog was named by Fortune as one of the top 5 Companies to Change the World, alongside Apple and Novartis, and ranking above the likes of Tencent, Unilever, IBM and Vanguard. This followed an independent review by Harvard professor Michael Porter and FSG. Fortune captures the essence of the ranking list as “Definitive Proof That It’s Possible to Do Right by Your Shareholders, Your Employees, Your Customers, and the World at Large.”
Born and raised in South Africa, Dr. Kuper holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University, supervised by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and ethicist Baroness Onora O’Neill. He has been an academic or visiting scholar at Cambridge, Harvard and Columbia. Dr. Kuper is also the author of two books on globalisation and governance, Global Responsibilities (Routledge) and Democracy Beyond Borders (Oxford), and co-author of publications with diverse leaders and Nobel laureates.
Major Achievements and Contributions
Dr. Kuper founded LeapFrog Investments in 2007. Under his leadership, LeapFrog’s distinctive approach has shown there is a synergy between profit and purpose – not simply “no trade off”. This demonstration started with investments in insurance ten years ago, and then cascaded across savings, pensions, credit, payments and healthcare – services now provided by LeapFrog companies to 111 million people.
LeapFrog’s methodology is to invest in exceptional businesses in Africa and Asia that deliver essential services to the emerging consumer, typically investing up to $50m per company and mobilising a team of experts to help each company grow, while applying innovative metrics and digital technologies. The firm then partners with owners and leaders to achieve leaps of growth, profitability and impact – generating strong financial returns and changing millions of lives.
Across all companies, since inception of every investment, portfolio companies have grown on average 40% per year. The services that LeapFrog companies provide are “essential” because, as Africans and Asians among others rise out of poverty, they need both protective and enabling tools. Life and property insurance, affordable loans, health services and pensions, just to name a few, become the safety nets for this generation, preventing a decline back into poverty when catastrophic events occur. They also serve as springboards for families to achieve security, as they rise towards the middle class, and small businesses to sustain their growth, profoundly benefiting communities.
LeapFrog was launched with President Clinton officially in late September 2008, against intensive headwinds – it was a week after Lehman Brothers collapsed. President Clinton and Dr. Kuper set the target of companies reaching 25 million low-income and emerging consumers by 2020. Over a decade later, LeapFrog companies reach 110m low income and emerging consumers, of the 130 million total number of people served. LeapFrog partner companies are also contributing to job creation, supporting 119,598 jobs across 33 markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
LeapFrog is also regarded in the insurance and investment industries as a leader in impact measurement, and through its proprietary measurement framework FIIRM has contributed to new expectations for integrated reporting and to the advancement of industry best practices. FIIRM’s insurance indicators are for example part of the Global Impact Investing Network’s Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (“IRIS”) and integrates with the Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS) and UN PRI as comparable measures of ESG. LeapFrog is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, and is one of the representatives on the technical standards committee.
Under Dr. Kuper’s leadership, LeapFrog was also a founding Investors Council Member of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and is a funder and member of the advisory group of The Impact Management Project.1 This project brought together over 700 organisations across the impact investing space and agreed upon shared fundamentals to manage impact. LeapFrog works with other organisations to advance specific industries; for example, LeapFrog adopted the SMART Campaign’s Client Protection Principles for Microfinance and helped develop the SMART Campaign client protection standards in insurance in Version 2.0. 2 Diverse other academic, industry and client impact organisations have drawn on LeapFrog’s leadership to move forward responsible investment, through thought leadership, collaboration and demonstration.
There have been significant commercial innovations by LeapFrog that touch many lives and are disruptive in the global insurance industry. One example is AllLife, the first company in the world to offer whole life cover to HIV positive individuals, helping them manage their health and no longer be regarded as “uninsurable”. LeapFrog invested in 2009, helped the company serve tens of thousands of previously excluded people in South Africa, and then helped the company develop a pioneering technology platform for continuous underwriting as well as a product covering diabetics. In 2017, that platform and product was rolled out with Royal London in the UK too, a reverse innovation from a developing market. It promises to transform life insurance for many of the 4.5 million people in the UK living with diabetes and often regarded as poor insurance risks.
LeapFrog has also enabled leading insurers to expand their footprint in emerging markets, to the benefit of the industry and those developing countries. Prudential Plc acquired a LeapFrog company in Ghana, thereby entering direct insurance on the continent. Swiss Re acquired a LeapFrog company in Kenya, entering direct insurance in East Africa. Prudential Financial Inc. launched a $350 million investment partnership with LeapFrog to access high-growth markets in Africa for the first time, and acquired Enterprise Group, Ghana’s largest life insurer, as its first investment.
This has demonstrated, in deeds and capital, the continent’s tremendous potential for growth over the long term.
In recognition of Dr. Kuper and LeapFrog’s contributions to transforming private investment, LeapFrog was the first Profit with Purpose investment group ever to be selected as Private Equity International’s Africa Firm of the Year in 2016.
In addition to founding and leading LeapFrog, Dr. Kuper has been involved in moving the industry forward via networks, panels and companies. For example, Dr. Kuper is a member of the AXA Stakeholder Advisory Panel – 7 leaders who advise AXA on global trends shaping the world in which AXA operates and the lives of the customers it serves. The panel’s purpose is to identify ways that AXA can shape its 2030 vision and ongoing strategy, and to advance the company's role as an insurer in building a stronger, safer and more sustainable society.
Dr. Kuper has informally advised many global insurance CEOs and CIOs on their emerging consumer, Fintech-Insurtech and sustainability strategies.
In September 2017, LeapFrog was ranked #5 on Fortune Magazine’s Change the World list, which recognises 50 companies – across all sectors and countries – that are both achieving commercial outcomes and addressing some of the world’s biggest social challenges.
Professional Experience
Dr. Andrew Kuper is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets. He founded LeapFrog in 2007 and has served continuously as its CEO. Dr. Kuper co-built the company into the world's largest dedicated equity investor in financial services and healthcare for emerging consumer. The firm is ranked fifth on Fortune’s list of Companies to Change the World.
Today, LeapFrog companies reach 111 million people across 33 emerging markets. More than 93.8 million of those people are low-income and emerging consumers, many accessing quality insurance, savings, pensions, credit, payments or healthcare for the first time. Dr. Kuper was hailed by former President Clinton as “The Insurer to the Poor”.
Dr. Kuper is a former Managing Director of Ashoka, which has supported and connected over 3000 social entrepreneurs in 70 countries. He is also a founding Advisory Board member of Purpose.com, which builds movements around new economic and social models, and In-Films, a social purpose film production company. Dr. Kuper has also been an academic or visiting scholar at Cambridge, Harvard and Columbia Universities. Born and raised in South Africa, Dr. Kuper holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University, supervised by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and ethicist Baroness Onora O’Neill. Dr. Kuper is also the author of two books on globalisation and governance, Global Responsibilities (Routledge) and Democracy Beyond Borders (Oxford), and co-author of publications with diverse leaders and Nobel laureates.
Awards and Honors
For his work as a pioneer in Profit with Purpose business, Dr. Kuper has received many awards, including: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the services category; Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; and the YPO Social Engagement Network Award, selected from among the 20,000 chief executive members of the Young Presidents Organisation.
Dr. Kuper has delivered keynote addresses to many forums including the EY World Enterpreneur of the Year conference, Clinton Global Initiative, the Geneva Association CEO meeting, and the IFC/Emerging Markets Private Equity Association summits. He was a member of the original Working Group on Mainstreaming Impact Investing at the World Economic Forum.