Employing IT Consultants on the Autism Spectrum
500 consultants around the world and over $50M in revenue – Auticon employs individuals on the autism spectrum as I.T. consultants. 85% of the consultants have a PhD, yet 80% were jobless before working at Auticon.
François de Borchgrave at Koisinvest is an investor in the company and helped fuel their international expansion starting in Germany, and then moving into France, the UK, Italy, the US, and beyond. His firm focuses on scale-up companies that are driving social impact.
From our micro-podcast interview at The Global Impact Investing Network Investor Forum in Copenhagen.
Podcast Transcript
Jacob: [00:00:00] Well, we’re here at the GIIN, Global Impact Investing Forum in Copenhagen, and I’m here with François de Bourghave. Fantastic. Kois invest.
François: Indeed. Hello everybody.
Jacob: Excited to run into some familiar faces. I think we connected a few years ago in The Hague.
François: Absolutely. At the Phoenix conference. Yeah.
Jacob: Tell me about your organization. What is it that you’re trying to do? What’s the impact you’re looking to make?
François: So KOIS has been created about 13 years ago. We with the aim to focus solely on impact investing and trying to generate market rate of returns in high-impact projects and companies. We do that mostly to the creation of funds for which we raise capital that we manage and we deploy that capital, investing in companies, investing in projects.
We have a range of funds focusing each on specific geographies, specific thematics. We’re fairly big on health care in India. In [00:01:00] Europe we’ve done in the past social housing we listed that on the, on the stock markets. Also very big in growth equity in Europe. So focusing on scaling companies post their startup phase or looking at impact with the main themes of KOIS being healthcare, the environments, and then education.
Jacob: So give, give me an example of maybe a case study or a success story. of something that you’ve helped do.
François: Absolutely. So well, one example of a company in Europe, name is Auticon. It’s a company that does IT software testing services for large banks, large insurance companies, but 100 percent of their consultants are people with autism.
So people who are on the autism spectrum. And people who basically have, let’s say, a different type of intelligence, but a fairly strong intelligence, being able to resolve complex problems. And we basically invested in the development of Auticon that started in Germany then moved into [00:02:00] France, into the UK.
We took a company over in the U S developed in Canada, Italy, and so on. So very strong international expansion. And now it’s a company that has close to 500 consultants, 50 million euros of turnover. Really providing high quality employment for people. Well, very smart. 85 percent of our consultants have a PhD, but really difficulty getting stable in the job markets.
80 percent of them were jobless before getting a job at Auticon. So a really fantastic company with fantastic impact and a great financial development.
Jacob: Fantastic. And tell me about how did you get started into impact? Like what in your own career personally, how did you pivot into that?
François: So I was active in private equity, traditional private equity and investing in sexy companies providing tombstones or sofas.
And I just realized that I was very passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and the investment process, but not [00:03:00] much about the sectors in which I was being deployed. So I really stopped for a while thinking what could be sectors that Where I could invest in that were that are close to my heart and my values and that’s when I stumbled upon the nascent Sector of impact investing that was back in 2010 and really have made my journey of it.
And it’s been an exciting one.
Jacob: What’s the biggest hurdle you’re facing right now?
François: Well, five years ago, I would have said clearly finding investors and finding capital to deploy that’s not the problem anymore. I would say now is very easy. It’s much really staying true to the impact compass that we are, that we’ve set at the, at the start, because it’s become a fashionable sector.
So there’s very much the risk of dilution, the risk of mission briefs. So it’s very much keeping that compass of being high on the impact, keeping the discipline on being [00:04:00] strong on the financial returns. But I would say, yeah, it’s, very much still being there at the forefront of helping people, helping the weakest, and improving the environments at the core of every business in which we invest.
Jacob: Like you said, it’s becoming a much more crowded space, and investors interested in impact have a lot more options than they ever have. Why should they choose KOIS instead of another option?
François: Well, I mean, first of all, we have more than 10 years of track record to show with results in Europe of a 23% IR per year.
In India, more than 30 % IR per year. So at least there’s the trust that we’ve done it and we’ve done it with success.
Also, I think,we can show the authenticity of our initiative. I mean, we started this 13 years ago when it was not fashionable. We’re not chasing money that was there we were chasing a [00:05:00] dream. And hoping that we would find money along the way.
So very much that authenticity and basically that whole trajectory, which has allowed us to develop deep, deep experience. We’ve made mistakes. We don’t need to make them again. We’ve learned, but we also developed very strong networks in the space.
So we have a very easy access to deal flow because people know us. So a lot of incoming deal flow. So we see a lot of Interest come interesting companies very early on and entrepreneurs who work with us know that we have authenticity. So they have a preference in a lot of cases to work with us compared to others.
So yeah, for an investor into our fund, there’s that advantage that we have of having a stronger connection to the market and easier access to the market.
Jacob: So what is it that you need most right now?
François: For the moment is very much talents to come in to strengthen our teams. I mean, we’re really [00:06:00] growing, so we’re really in need of very strong talent people who bring investment expertise or bring an interest into those social or environmental thematics.
And yeah, we’re always happy to see new investors, new LPs in our projects. So always welcome to join us for that,
Jacob: Who would be a good fit for the talent? What’s an ideal candidate look like
François: First and foremost, investment professionals. So people who have, the investment skills, the investment experience, that’s what we’re about.
We’re an investment firm. So that’s number one. And I would say nearly at that level people who have an understanding of a certain vertical in which we invest. So for example understanding the dynamics of renewable energy or climate crisis-related thematics. Understanding the issues in healthcare in Europe, for example.
So people who bring just more than an investment process, but [00:07:00] also have an edge and a head start on the issues of a certain thematic.
Jacob: And what are you most excited about looking forward?
François: Well, for us, the most exciting is really seeing those companies in which we’ve invested. We invest at the growth stage, not the startup stage.
But so really when companies are, are really ready to, to push on their growth. So we’re really excited, first of all, to see some of them scaling very much. But also we look forward to see the others get on that journey. So that’s very much exciting thing is seeing that impact being brought at scale and that’s very much why we’re in that job.
Jacob: If someone wanted to get ahold of you online, what’s the best way for them to find you?
François: Our website KOISinvest.com and KOIS is a K O I S.
Jacob: Fantastic. Thank you so much, François.
François: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
Jacob: Awesome.
François: Cheers.
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