ImpactAlpha, July 1 – In a transfer among nonprofit impact investing firms, Acumen acquired the team and intellectual property of the “CivicX” social impact accelerator from Atlanta-based Points of Light.
CivicX was founded in 2013 with support from PwC Charitable Foundation and Starbucks Foundation and has graduated 146 for-profit and nonprofit early-stage social ventures and invested more than $1 million. It was a pioneer in the growing “civic tech” space.
Acumen is seeking to strengthen its ‘+Acumen’ leadership academy, which has provided online training to a half-million students and practitioners in 193 countries, Acumen’s Jo-Ann Tan tells ImpactAlpha. In the past year, +Acumen has designed and executed a handful of accelerator programs, including a nonprofit food recovery program with ReFED and Walmart; a data and technology earned-income accelerator with Open Society Foundations; and a program supporting plastic waste entrepreneurs with Unilever.
+Acumen will bring CivicX’s offline curriculum online, and make it available globally. Traditional startups have broad access to accelerator programs, says Tan. The CivicX acquisition is an effort to “expand access to social impact curriculum.”
