Our Story

Our Values

• Community collaboration and accountability

• Investment flexibility, creativity, and accessibility

• Listening, learning, and story sharing with humility

• Taking action to move money at scale

• Racial, gender, economic, and climate justice

Our History

Candide Group is an impact investment firm that strives to center the needs of people from whom wealth has been historically extracted. Founded in 2019 by Aner Ben-Ami and Morgan Simon, Candide has supported over 100 transactions in companies and funds on behalf of clients. We are a Registered Investment Advisor, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and we only accept new clients by invitation. Candide Group's overall journey and strategy are further outlined in Morgan Simon’s book, Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change, published by Perseus Book Group in 2017. 

Note: Please see important disclosures regarding this book on our disclosure page.

Our Name

Our name, Candide Group, is inspired by the classic French novel, written by Voltaire. Candide is the story of a young man who travels the world and is confronted with overwhelming suffering and injustice. He ultimately returns home and overcomes his powerlessness and despair with a call to concrete, immediate action. The final, famous line of the book is: “we must cultivate our garden.”

As impact investors, like the character Candide, we struggle every day to understand the nature of good and evil. We prioritize taking action as we attempt to plant the seeds of justice by influencing and organizing capital, alongside others who are working to grow a new economy from the ground up.