IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
Rethink Capital Partners
Community Development
Demographic-based Impact
EducationFirm Overview
Rethink Capital Partners (“Rethink”) is a multi-strategy investment manager specializing in real estate and venture capital. With over 40 years of experience and $2.2bn+ in AUM, our complementary investment strategies seek to deliver strong financial returns and contribute to the betterment of our society, communities, and planet. We recognize the interconnectedness of healthcare, housing, food, education, climate, and financial inclusion in uplifting individuals and communities. Our platform houses five investment strategies centered around this holistic approach to impact: Rethink Community, Rethink Education, Rethink Food, Rethink Healthcare Real Estate, and Rethink Impact. Each strategy is managed by a team of industry experts and is focused on a targeted, well-defined thesis. Rethink invests, supports, and mentors the entrepreneurial fund managers leading its strategies. We believe diverse teams are stronger teams. We value inclusion across our firm, as evidenced by the investments we make, the communities we serve, and our own leadership team.
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 or 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 them and deliver impactful ROI. Our model of sector-focused strategies, co-led by seasoned operators and investment professionals, is a key differentiator. This approach allows us to deeply understand the challenges within industries like food, healthcare, community real estate, education, financial inclusion, and sustainability, while also applying the investment knowledge needed to thoroughly evaluate opportunities. Impact performance is closely tied to our investment diligence. We pride ourselves on stringent impact evaluation and tracking as part of our investment 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/Latinx CEOs or co-founders, and 78% of Rethink Food’s portfolio companies have at least one woman, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ+ identifying founder.
Investment Example
You shouldn’t have to go into debt to get a great education. But rising tuition costs in America make higher education increasingly inaccessible, especially for students from underserved backgrounds. To help address this issue, Rethink Education invested in Campus, an online community college that offers accredited degree programs taught by top university professors at affordable tuition rates. Campus aims to help high-promise students access quality education and launch their careers. Campus has a graduation rate that exceeds the national average for community colleges. In 2023, more than half of its 900 students identified as Black or Hispanic and 70% were women; the majority were also first-generation college students. To support student success, Campus provides each student with a laptop, free tutoring in math and writing, and access to a success coach. This level of support is rare, and Campus allows eligible students to cover tuition costs entirely through Pell Grants.
Leadership and Team
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Douglas Ray – Chief Executive Officer More Info
Douglas Ray serves as Chief Executive Officer of Rethink Capital Partners. He joined the firm in 1995 and has subsequently been involved in all phases of the firm’s development. In his role, Mr. Ray is responsible for supervising all real estate and private investments, including negotiating major transactions, overseeing the investment due diligence process, providing analysis, and structuring equity and debt investments on behalf of Rethink and their clients. Mr. Ray previously served on the Board of Directors of Fifth Street Finance Corp. (NASDAQ: FSC), a public investment management company based in White Plains, NY, and is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). |
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Amy Nelson – Managing Partner, Rethink Education More Info
Amy Nelson serves as Managing Partner of Rethink Education where she oversees the firm’s operations, strategy, pipeline and portfolio management, and serves on the investment committee. Amy transitioned into a full-time role with the Rethink Education team after three years as Chief Strategy Officer for Rethink Capital Partners, where she led growth and operations across the platform. Amy also sits on the IC for Rethink Food and has been a strategic partner on Rethink Community. Prior to Rethink, Amy spent seven years at Venture For America (VFA), an organization that selects, trains, and supports the next generation of entrepreneurs, including four years serving as CEO. |
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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. |
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. The framework is utilized by the investment teams during deal sourcing and due diligence processes. Mission alignment and intent are extremely important for each strategy – our investment teams are particularly focused on the mission and desired outcomes of the company prior to investment.
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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