Tandem’s focus is on helping scale up social enterprises whose approaches are tested to deliver their benefits to a broader public. We focus on investments that benefit the 500 million people in Southeast Asia.

In considering investments, we take into account four major criteria:

1. Is this business socially meaningful?
   This includes questions such as whether the market is willing and able to pay for the product or service in question and whether it will make the lives of its buyers measurably better. Some investments have a direct social impact (mosquito nets provide direct protection against malaria-carrying mosquitoes) while others have a more indirect social impact (many intervening factors affect clean water during its journey to consumption; it may be stored and become stagnant or become unclean as it is drunken from a dirty glass).
    
2. How many people in need does this business serve? Can this business deliver social impact on a large scale?
    
3. How does this business deliver against the Best Available Charitable Option?
   Is this business better, worse, or the same in terms of social impact when compared to the most effective charity in its field? For more on the Best Available Charitable Option framework, see Acumen Fund’s paper on the topic.
    
4. Is this business financially self-sustaining?
   Can the business graduate to more commercial sources of capital, allowing Tandem Fund to exit its investment at later point.
   

Food		Improving access to nutritious food for malnourished communities
Health		Addressing orphan diseases that disproportionately affect the poor, improving access to basic healthcare, improving the quality of basic healthcare
Housing		Enabling low-income families to gain dignity and build an investment through safe and affordable housing
Distribution		Providing low-income communities with market access, enabling companies that produce socially-beneficial products and service to access low-income communities

We think that changing the world goes far beyond money. Entrepreneurs need to work alongside talented, inspiring, and passionate people who share their goals.

Throughout the investment process, we keep a strong focus on nurturing the talent in the social enterprises we work with. Our Independent Directors Program brings together world-class talent in multinational companies to help grow social enterprises by strengthening entrepreneurs, operations, and finances.

The program enables us to quickly access experts in fields such as operations management or marketing to help social entrepreneurs build their businesses. The program also enables us to locate sector-specific mentors to guide social entrepreneurs through the growth of their enterprise.