W.K. Kellogg Foundation Manages Mission-Driven Investing with AIM and PULSE
Online, August 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Application Experts is proud to announce the addition one of the world's largest foundations, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to its list of clients using both AIM and PULSE. The Kellogg Foundation has enlisted the help of AIM to manage the investing process behind their $100M social investing fund focused on mission-driven investments, a method of investing that lets the Foundation realize both financial and social returns. Kellogg will also be using PULSE to track the financial and social performance of their investments. Of the $100M fund, $25M has been designated to mission-driven investments in southern Africa, while the remaining $75M will be put toward investments in the United States.
Kellogg partners with another App-X client, Imprint Capital Advisors, for advisement on their social investing choices.
Application Experts, LLC (App-X) is the leading provider of flexible web-based solutions for Alternative Asset Fund Managers and Institutional Investors.
App-X was founded in 2006 by Kevin Kelly and Joe McVicker. At that time, Kevin was working as an outsourced CTO for what is now a $2 billion fund of funds in Chicago and he identified the need for a web-based, specifically-tailored solution for the front- to mid-office of Private Equity and Venture Capital fund managers and funds of funds.From this insight, AIM was born.
In 2008, App-X participated in TechStars, a startup incubator based in Boulder, Colorado. Led by the mentorship of the founders of such companies as Tumblr, whitepages.com, and foursquare, the TechStars program helped App-X solidify the initial build-out of the AIM product and refine a go-to-market strategy.
Over the last couple of years, App-X has worked with a wide variety of organizations across different subsectors of the Alternative Asset Management space including institutional investors like educational endowments and family offices, funds of funds, and fund managers in the buyout space, in the real estate space, and in the VC space. App-X clients are leaders in the Alternative Asset Community with over $30 billion in assets under management. Subsequently, App-X has developed a unique perspective on the Private Equity world from the viewpoint of both an LP and a GP. The result is a continually-evolving and feature-rich set of products that are flexible enough to handle several different investing scenarios.
In 2009, App-X won the bid to develop and take to market PULSE, a cloud-based social impact tracking system developed by Acumen Fund with help from Google, Rockefeller Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte, among others. Today, App-X implements and supports PULSE for various members of the impact community including non-Profits, foundations, and corporate sustainability and responsibility managers.
In 2011, App-X was awarded certified B Corporation status, joining B Corp companies around the world in a commitment to solve social and environmental problems through the power of business. B Corps differ from traditional businesses in that they meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, meet higher legal accountability standards, and build business constituency for good business.
Today, App-X has over 50 clients and nearly 800 individual users using AIM and PULSE. App-X is headquartered outside of Denver with offices in Boston and Chicago.