The elea Way - Preview

elea’s FOUNDATION AND OPER ATING MODEL

91

Figure 3.3  The eight elea due diligence questions. Source:  elea

To address all of these important and difficult aspects of the philan- thropic impact investing due diligence process with the necessary sophis- ticated and subtle judgment, discussions on each and every potential investment take place at three levels at elea: within the due diligence team, led by a senior team member; within elea’s leadership team, led by the CEO; and at the level of the board of trustees (for final approval), led by the Chairman, who is also one of the founders. Investment instruments Besides the basic “go/no go” decision on an investment recommenda- tion, a crucial question to address is how much and what type of capital should be invested and under what conditions regarding governance and legal terms. As a general guideline, elea looks at what is most helpful for the development of an enterprise given its special circumstances in terms of maturity, financial versus non-financial needs, and business- model requirements. We seek to invest several hundred thousand Swiss francs and to have a positioning as a minority shareholder among a small