Lauren Cochran

Lauren Cochran is Founder and Managing Partner of Azarine, a multi-family office and investment advisory firm focused on building climate-aligned portfolios across asset classes. Azarine describes its work as bespoke investment capabilities with a climate focus, operating as an in-house investment team for families while using the network and structure of a boutique advisory firm. The firm is listed as Azarine Limited, formerly Atomica Advisory Limited, an appointed representative of Sturgeon Ventures LLP.

Before founding Azarine, Cochran was Vice President of the Office of Equity and Investment Funds at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. DFC announced her appointment on September 13, 2021, saying she would lead strategy for direct equity and fund investments in emerging market economies globally. Speaker bios later described her DFC role as responsibility for a $3 billion global portfolio and more than $1 billion in annual investments in private funds and companies.

From 2014 to 2021, Cochran worked at Blue Haven Initiative, where she became Managing Director and led strategy and execution for the family office’s early-stage direct investment portfolio in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work there focused on equity investments with the dual expectation of strong financial returns and positive social and environmental impact. Blue Haven-related bios and interviews connect her to early investments including Paystack, M-KOPA, PEG Africa, CrossBoundary Energy, Twiga Foods, and Field Intelligence.

Earlier in her career, Cochran was an early employee at Imprint Capital, the impact investment firm acquired by Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2015. She also worked with the Clinton Foundation’s Health Access Initiative in 2006-2007 on healthcare infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, after starting in private equity and investment banking at Deutsche Bank’s Financial Sponsors Group and Diamond Castle. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BS from Georgetown University, and completed the General Course program at the London School of Economics.

• At Azarine, Cochran works with families to build diversified investment portfolios intended to reduce the impact of climate change in developed and emerging markets.
• Azarine’s current focus is climate-aligned portfolios across asset classes, including energy infrastructure, natural capital, and industrial decarbonization.
• Her Blue Haven work focused on early-stage investments in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly renewable energy, financial services, and logistics.
• Blue Haven’s stated investment standard under Cochran was equity investing with the “dual expectation of best-in-class financial returns and maximum positive social and environmental impact.”
• In a 2020 Forbes interview, Cochran described Blue Haven’s direct investment portfolio as a $50 million carve-out focused on early-stage startups in sub-Saharan Africa, with nine portfolio companies mostly headquartered in Nairobi or Lagos.
• She has emphasized founder/team quality and culture, saying during COVID that “culture matters” and that she looks at how entrepreneurs think about their people.
• She has also signaled valuation discipline, saying Blue Haven had wanted to invest more but felt valuations were “a bit out of whack,” and that market disruption could create buying opportunities, especially in healthcare.
• She has historically preferred deep, relationship-based diligence for larger checks, saying it would be hard to make a Series A investment of more than $1 million with a board seat without meeting the team in person.