About

Village Capital is an organization that creates the space for entrepreneurs to work together across the boundaries of their organizations, to help lift one another’s performance. By bringing entrepreneurs from similar communities together — whether the same city, or the same sector — they establish cohorts with shared experience and peer-driven mentorship. They then give authority over capital investments to entrepreneurs themselves, empowering them to make sound decisions about which among them is most likely to succeed.

VilCap, Inc., their 501c3 non-profit, operates business development programs for early-stage entrepreneurs in agriculture, education, energy, financial inclusion, and health. VilCap Investments, their affiliated, for-profit investment fund, invests in the two top-ranked graduates from each program.

Their unique model won McKinsey/Harvard Business Review’s prestigious M-Prize for innovation in 2013. Over the past 5 years, program graduates have reached 6 million customers, created over 7,000 jobs, and raised more than $110 million in follow-on capital. To date, 96% of its alumni would recommend Village Capital’s programs to other entrepreneurs, and 93% of its portfolio companies are still in business.

 

VilCap’s Programs

Village Capital finds, trains, and funds entrepreneurs solving global problems. They build communities around entrepreneurs that increase opportunities for growth and success.  Their peer-selected investment approach delivers strong results for early-stage businesses and investors.

• Entrepreneurs - For entrepreneurs, they make starting a business easier, and provide the mentorship to be successful.
• Investors - For investors, they source higher-quality entrepreneurs, at higher volume, and more cost-effectively than any entrepreneur support organization worldwide. 
• Communities - or communities, they help their stakeholders to support entrepreneurs that are solving major global problems.

 

VilCap’s Sectors

• Agriculture - National and global food security demands require successful, resource-efficient farms and agribusinesses. Village Capital supports entrepreneurs around the world developing agriculture technologies that make supply chains more efficient, reduce greenhouse emissions, and increase incomes for smallholder farmers. 
• Education - Alongside local school administrators, teachers, and policymakers, entrepreneurs can help solve these problems, and Village Capital’s Education program has the potential to unlock a new group of early-stage ventures that are looking to scale their solutions to districts or their global equivalents to improve educational outcomes globally.
• Energy and water - Fossil-fuel energy consumption is growing as economies around the world expand, and non-renewable materials continue to accumulate in landfills everywhere. Village Capital is supporting the creation of a clean and green future, where the world powers itself and makes tangible products from renewable sources. They are doing this by building local ecosystems of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and partners addressing the lack of clean, sustainable, and affordable energy technologies.
• Financial Inclusion - Lack of access to financial services worsens inequality and the cycle of poverty. Without access to financial services, low-wealth individuals become vulnerable to financial shocks, such as a car accident, hospitalization, or job loss. They are supporting entrepreneurs to create alternative financial technologies providing more affordable services for unbanked and under-banked people.