Andrew Kuper

Andrew Kuper

AO
Andrew Kuper; AO
	LeapFrog Founder and CEO Andrew Kuper
Born	South Africa
Nationality	South African, Australian
Alma mater	Harvard University ; Witwatersrand University ; University of Cambridge (PhD)
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, businessman, investor and author
Known for	CEO, founder, LeapFrog Investments

Andrew Kuper is a South African-Australian serial entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets. As a pioneer of Profit with Purpose business, Kuper has been credited with the birth of a virtuous new asset class. He is the founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments, a specialist investor in emerging markets, investing in financial services and healthcare.

Former United States President Bill Clinton announced the launch of the company in 2008, recognising it for opening new frontiers in alternative investing. LeapFrog has since attracted more than US$2 billion from global investors. In 2017, Fortune ranked LeapFrog Investments as one of the top 5 Companies to Change the World, alongside Apple and Novartis. Originally from South Africa, Kuper now resides in Sydney, Australia and spends time in LeapFrog's offices in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Early life

Kuper was born in South Africa and brought up on a farm outside of Johannesburg. He is the son of anti-apartheid campaigners.

Career

Early career

In 2004, Kuper was appointed to managing director at Ashoka, an organisation 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.

Founding LeapFrog Investments

In 2007, Kuper founded LeapFrog Investments. Using a distinctive 'profit with a purpose' approach, LeapFrog invests in companies that provide access to financial services, healthcare and climate solutions to underserved people in emerging markets. Since its establishment, as chief executive, Kuper has helped attract over $2 billion from global investors including Temasek, AIA, American International Group Inc. (AIG), Swiss Re AG, AXA SA and Prudential Financial. 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, marking a natural extension of the firm’s journey as a pioneer of impact investing, backing companies that deliver essential services and products that enable lower-income consumers to build better lives.

Awards

In 2018, Kuper was awarded the John S. Bickley Founders Award Gold Medal for Excellence by the International Insurance Society recognised for his pioneering work in profit with purpose investment. Earlier in his career, Kuper received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He is a board member of GPCA.

In 2022, Kuper was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to the impact investing industry, to global business leadership, and to financial inclusion".

Kuper is the editor and lead author of one book on governance and globalisation, Global Responsibilities (Routledge, 2005) and the author of another, Democracy Beyond Borders (Oxford, 2004).

Bibliography

Kuper, A. (2004). Democracy beyond borders: Justice and representation in global institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kuper, A. (2005). Global responsibilities: Who must deliver on human rights? New York: Routledge.

External links