Are Impact Investors Truly Tuning In? The Critical Role of Stakeholder Insights in Shaping Effective Investment Strategies

**Are Impact Investors Truly Listening? The Vital Role of Stakeholder Voices in Shaping Effective Investment Strategies**

Collecting data is easy—translating it into real-world impact is far harder. At Acumen and similar impact-driven firms, this translation occurs intentionally through structured forums like investment committees, portfolio reviews, and sector convenings—spaces where insights from customers, communities, and other stakeholders directly shape capital allocation, risk evaluation, and post-investment priorities.

For us, “listening” means more than deploying surveys or feedback forms. It involves authentic, ongoing dialogue with company teams to jointly interpret findings and co-create actionable responses. It’s in these exchanges that true value is unlocked: customer perspectives reveal blind spots, inspire collaborative innovations, and refine impact strategies.

This process not only enhances company performance but also builds confidence among co-investors and limited partners that impact is actively stewarded—not just measured.

This article shares key lessons from our journey in embedding listening as a foundational practice that actively informs investment strategy. We illustrate how Acumen weaves impact management throughout the investment lifecycle—establishing clear expectations with investees and working alongside them to turn insights into measurable outcomes that advance both business success and our mission.

**Why Listening Is Fundamental to Impact Investing**  

While “listening” may seem simple in theory, it’s often reduced to a perfunctory step: send a survey, aggregate data, issue a report. But its real power lies in what follows—the strategic pivots, operational adjustments, and investment choices it enables.

Unlike traditional businesses that listen primarily for customer satisfaction or product feedback, impact investors like Acumen help companies uncover deeper, systemic insights into how their services affect people’s lives—particularly impacts that internal teams might overlook. These insights connect business operations to actual human outcomes.

This understanding is gaining traction across the sector. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) champions structured feedback loops across the investment value chain, while initiatives like Impact Frontiers push for community voices to be central to impact reporting. Tools such as 60 Decibels’ Lean Data methodology rapidly capture lived experiences at scale, delivering actionable intelligence in weeks—not years. Today, listening isn’t optional; it’s essential for credible, responsive impact management.

**Listening Before Investment**  

At Acumen, listening begins during due diligence. Using Lean Data surveys—often in collaboration with 60 Decibels—we evaluate whether a company genuinely serves people living in poverty, identify operational vulnerabilities, and explore opportunities to strengthen its model.

Take WamiAgro, an Acumen portfolio company supporting smallholder farmers in Ghana. A 2024 Lean Data study confirmed that 77% of its customers live on less than $3.65 a day and that 64% saw increased earnings due to WamiAgro’s services—validating our investment rationale. Yet the data also exposed weaknesses: farmers reported delays in receiving farm inputs and inadequate extension support, which disrupted planting schedules.

This feedback triggered strategic conversations within Acumen about WamiAgro’s operational risks and priorities. Post-investment, the company responded by forming a dedicated service delivery unit to improve reliability and customer retention—boosting both business sustainability and social impact. For us, this responsiveness signals a company’s readiness to learn and adapt, influencing where we channel further support or capital.

**Listening After Investment**  

Once capital is deployed, listening becomes even more critical. We conduct Lean Data studies at key junctures—six to twelve months post-investment or during major product shifts—to detect emerging issues early, validate impact, and provide transparent evidence to limited partners.

Consider Zeraki Analytics, a Kenyan ed-tech startup that initially offered a desktop-based admin tool and e-learning platform. Adoption was sluggish because the product didn’t align with schools’ day-to-day workflows. Feedback from a school administrator revealed a more pressing need: tools to manage operations and track student performance in real time. In response, Zeraki pivoted to develop a full-featured school management system now used by thousands.

For Zeraki, customer input wasn’t just confirmation—it was a strategic guide. It addressed a critical challenge: teachers spending up to half their time on administrative tasks. For Acumen, this demonstrated how listening can reshape investment strategy, informing decisions about follow-on funding and business model evolution. We’re now exploring performance-based financing and other innovative mechanisms to deepen impact based on these insights.

These aren’t minor adjustments—they’re transformative course corrections that align growth with meaningful, lasting impact.

**Shaping Technical Assistance Through Listening**  

Feedback from customers and employees also determines the kind of technical assistance (TA) and capital we deploy. Without this feedback loop, insights risk becoming static reports rather than engines of continuous improvement.

In our “Pathways to Growth” report, we detailed how listening uncovered gender-based barriers at Koolboks, a portfolio company selling solar-powered freezers. Women entrepreneurs—key potential users—faced structural hurdles in accessing and affording the product, not due to disinterest, but because of how pricing and design were structured.

In response, Acumen provided targeted TA to help Koolboks adopt gender-inclusive approaches to product design, financing, and distribution. The company revised payment plans and adapted features to better serve women, expanding its market reach, building trust, and fostering more inclusive growth—all driven by direct customer input.

**Listening Across the Portfolio**  

Each year, we examine patterns across our entire portfolio: where companies thrive, where they struggle, and how to balance scale with depth of impact.

Historically, our focus was on reach—how many people we served. Now, we prioritize depth: Are lives genuinely improving? Are communities becoming more resilient to climate shocks? These questions—shaped by years of listening—now steer portfolio strategy, follow-on investments, and risk assessments in investment committees.

**Impact With, Not For**  

Real impact arises when customers, companies, and investors engage in shared learning. Companies adapt their models to real needs; investors align capital and support accordingly; and industry gatherings amplify these insights across the ecosystem.

At Acumen, we treat feedback not as a final output but as infrastructure—an ongoing system that converts insight into coordinated action. Impact isn’t a static metric; it’s a dynamic, evolving conversation.

Ultimately, listening isn’t an add-on—it’s our core strategy. It’s how impact capital remains agile, grounded, and capable of driving enduring change.