Andrew Kuper

Kuper was born in South Africa and brought up on a farm outside of Johannesburg. He is the son of anti-apartheid campaigners. He began investing at the age of 10 and took on his first clients at age 13. He attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg followed by Harvard University, where he won the Henry Fellowship. He later graduated from Cambridge University with a PhD in social science and political science supervised by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Early career

In 2004, Kuper was appointed managing director at Ashoka, an organization that finances thousands of social entrepreneurs. Among other roles, he ran the Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship, working with Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Abed of BRAC.

LeapFrog

In 2007, Kuper founded LeapFrog Investments. LeapFrog invests in companies that provide access to financial services, healthcare, and climate solutions to underserved people in emerging markets. Since its establishment LeapFrog has attracted over $2 billion from global investors including Temasek, AIA, Prudential Financial, the International Finance Corporation, and the European Investment Bank. The companies in which the firm has invested have had an annual growth rate of more than 24% and reach 492 million people in 30 countries.

LeapFrog launched its Climate Investing Strategy in 2022, and now owns stakes in companies such as Battery Smart in India and Sun King in Africa.