IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Rethink Capital Partners
Affordable Housing & Community Development
Education
Demographic-based impactFirm Overview
Rethink Capital Partners is a multi-strategy investment manager specializing in real estate and venture capital. With over 40 years of experience and $3bn+ in assets under management, our complementary investment strategies seek to deliver strong financial and social returns. Currently our platform houses five strategies: Rethink Community, Rethink Education, Rethink Food, Rethink Healthcare Real Estate and Rethink Impact. Each of these strategies is managed by a team of industry experts focused on a targeted, well-defined thesis. Across these vital themes, Rethink Capital Partners invests, supports, and mentors the entrepreneurial fund managers leading its strategies. We believe diverse teams are stronger teams and we value inclusion across our firm, as evidenced not only by the investments we make and the communities we serve but by our own leadership team. Our industry-leading platform allows our portfolio managers to operate at the highest levels, furthering the interests of our partners and our world.
Years of Operation: 10 years or more
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
Mission driven investments deliver more sustainable returns, both socially and financially.
We believe there is a direct connection between positive societal change and strong fiscal performance. This guides our investment decisions, as we seek to form long-term relationships with all stakeholders. At Rethink, we back the innovations that allow people to flourish. From healthcare to housing, education to food, our portfolio focuses on making the products and services needed for a healthier, more prosperous life. Whether we are acquiring an outpatient facility that provides a community with greater access to healthcare of backing a startup that lowers the cost of post-secondary education for underserved populations, Rethink drives tangible outcomes across strategies.
Our strategies are led by sector specialists who deeply understand the challenges within their respective industry and seek to use private capital investments to address those challenges and deliver impactful ROI. Our approach is built to address pressing issues in society through knowledge and experience in the areas we focus. Our model of sector-focused strategies co-led by operators and investment professionals gives us a unique edge to truly understand the industry challenges and have investment knowledge to effectively evaluate deals across food, healthcare, community real estate, education, financial inclusion, and sustainability. Our impact criteria plays a huge part of our investment diligence; impact is part of our process and approach. We invest with a gender and diversity lens: Rethink Impact invests 100% in women-run companies, 22% of Rethink Education's portfolio is led by Black/Latine CEOs or co-founders, and 63% of Rethink Food's portfolio companies have at least one BIPOC founder.
Investment Example
Reading proficiency is the foundation of success in school and life. Yet our nation is faced with the problem that 67% of fourth graders read below the proficient level. The differentiated instruction students need is challenging for schools to provide alone. To help address this critical issue, Rethink Education invested in Ignite Reading, a one-to-one tutoring platform, rooted in the Science of Reading, that works with schools to provide differentiated instruction at scale to grades K-8. Ignite aligns with Rethink Education’s mission to transform the way people learn, with a specific focus on pre-K-12. Ignite’s program shows proven results for all students. At the end of the 2022-23 year, students saw an average of 2.4 weeks of reading progress per week. Of these students, 94% were enrolled in free/reduced lunch, 73% were from historically underrepresented communities, 27% were multilingual, and 17% received special education services.
Leadership and Team
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Andre Benin – Managing Partner, Rethink Education More Info
Andre Bennin serves as Managing Partner of Rethink Education where he is a key player in both firm strategy and leading investments: actively shaping the portfolio, positioning, and thesis. He previously served as Managing Partner of Juvo Ventures. Before that, he came from Strada Education Network, where he was a Managing Director of Corporate Development, working as investment lead on several direct minority, control, and fund investments. While at Strada, Dre served on the boards of Authess, Cell-Ed, BridgeEdu, and Roadtrip Nation. In addition, he was an advisory board member of Kenzie Academy and GSV Ventures. |
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Rini Greenfield – Founding Managing Partner, Rethink Food More Info
Rini Greenfield serves as the Founding Managing Partner of Rethink Food with Brad Jakeman. She is the former co-founder of Adaptive Management, a Tiger Management in-house portfolio, where she helped pioneer the use of big data analysis and visualization to make fundamental long-term investments. Rini is also currently a Board Advisor for Novus Capital, a company focused on sustainability and social equity through technological innovation. Rini has over a decade of experience investing in technology and consumer companies. She started her career developing a keen understanding of the global semiconductor and hardware industry which drove her to develop a strong global supply chain network with a particular focus on Asia. |
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Michael Walden – COO, Rethink Capital Partners More Info
Michael Walden serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of Rethink Capital Partners, where he oversees the launch, development and operations of the Rethink Capital Partners venture strategies. Michael also serves as the President & Co-Managing Partner of Rethink Community. Since joining the firm in 2011, he has led the development and launch of four Rethink Capital Partners strategies and developed the firm’s operating division. He is a member of the Investment Committee for Rethink Education, Rethink Impact, Rethink Community and Rethink Healthcare Real Estate. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
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Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
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Social impact is at the core of each of our strategies' investment approaches. Custom impact frameworks are developed that align with the social focus of each strategy and this criteria is the initial screen the investment team utilizes during deal sourcing and due diligence processes. Each strategy is particularly focused on the mission and desired outcomes of the company to ensure mission alignment and intent.
The theses for our various strategies evolve around social and/or environmental sustainability practices and impactful work. For each underlying investment on the venture side, we review the DEI composition of management teams and underline team members as soon as possible during the due diligence process. We strongly believe that businesses perform better when they are most sustainable; their social impact drives their financial success. On the real estate side, we recognize the importance to align partnerships with communities we develop to help maximize mutual benefit and support broader goals for our investments and the problems they are solving.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
707 Westchester Avenue, White Plains, NY 10604 USA
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