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Built from Scratch: How ABC Impact Became Asia’s Largest Impact Fund | Sugandhi Matta (#091)
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My guest today is Sugandhi Matta, Chief Impact Officer at ABC Impact – the largest Pan-Asian impact-dedicated private equity fund, with nearly $900 million in AUM.
Sugandhi began her career focused on growth and returns — first at Temasek, and later at Actis. But after a breast cancer diagnosis in her early thirties, she returned to work with a new question: What if she could apply her investing skills to businesses solving real problems?
That question led her to LeapFrog Investments — and eventually to ABC Impact, where she became one of the founding partners. From the ground up, she helped build a fund that integrates impact into every step of the investment process, from deal screening to reporting.
Today, ABC Impact invests across four themes:
- Climate and water solutions
- Financial and digital inclusion
- Better health and education
- Sustainable food and agriculture
Sugandhi leads the firm’s impact team. They developed a proprietary system rooted in the five dimensions of the Impact Management Project and tailored to ABC’s sectors.
The internal language centers on three Cs: consistency, comparability, and communicability. It’s a disciplined approach – built to align intention, data, and outcomes across the portfolio.
Sugandhi's goal is to hold impact to the same standard as IRR.
However, she points out that the burden of proof is often uneven. Expected returns are taken at face value. Impact is asked to justify itself at every turn. Because investors don’t yet trust its metrics the way they trust financial ones.
The double standard isn’t just about data. It’s about gender, too.
As one of the few female investment leads in Asia’s private equity ecosystem, Sugandhi has had to thread her way through what she calls the “quiet skepticism” – the unspoken assumptions around risk appetite, ambition, or expertise.
Even now, she’s often the only woman in the room with GPs or LPs. She doesn’t lead with gender, but she’s aware of how it plays out. The skepticism is often unspoken, but present.
Over time, she’s learned not to internalize it. Instead, she focuses on the work, knowing that – fairly or not – being a woman in this space can mean having to prove yourself just a little more.
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Additional Resources:
ABC Impact website
ABC Impact LinkedIn
Sugandhi Matta LinkedIn
Insights from Dalberg and ABC Impact’s User-Centered Study
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SRI360 interviews mentioned:
💎 Stewart Langdon: Ep 17
💎 Eliza Foo: Ep 71
💎 Sharon Vosmek: Ep 07
💎 Tara Bishop: Ep 70
💎 4 Women-Led Funds: 4-in-1 Ep 86
💎 Sir Ronald Cohen: Ep 73
Chapters
1. Intro (00:00:00)
2. Sugandhi Matta’s background and early influences (00:03:49)
3. Educational journey (00:08:07)
4. Joining Temasek and stepping into institutional finance (00:12:09)
5. Joining Actis amid the 2008 financial crisis (00:15:46)
6. Cancer and the turning point toward impact (00:18:48)
7. Entry into impact investing at LeapFrog Investments (00:22:34)
8. Leaving LeapFrog to build ABC Impact from scratch (00:27:05)
9. Evolving role as Chief Impact Officer (00:32:50)
10. No trade-offs philosophy (00:37:50)
11. ABC’s approach to structured impact measurement (00:44:07)
12. Case studies: Measuring impact in autism therapy (00:54:19)
13. CropIn (India) – agricultural technology platform (00:56:01)
14. Sunseap (Southeast Asia) – rooftop renewable energy business (00:58:04)
15. Financial inclusion investments in China and India (00:58:39)
16. Fundraising evolution and LP conversations (01:00:34)
17. Sector resilience and founder intentionality (01:04:57)
18. Supporting the tribe of female founders (01:09:29)
19. Structural barriers women face in accessing capital (01:13:48)
20. Industry standardization and future outlook (01:17:09)
21. Asia’s at the heart of the global impact story (01:21:07)
22. Exit strategies in impact investing (01:23:59)
23. Rapid fire questions (01:26:19)
24. Contact info (01:29:24)
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