Village Capital

“Entrepreneurs are important in the fight against climate change because they recognize the practical, local, immediate problems that we are facing as a people.” In September 2024, we hosted the Greentech Africa Stakeholder Summit in Nairobi, uniting climate founders from East, West, and North Africa, along with the vibrant local startup ecosystem, for three days of innovation, collaboration, and growth. Throughout the summit, founders showcased their product demos and participated in peer due diligence to identify the most investment-ready startups. The event also brought together a diverse group of mentors, investors, ESOs, corporates, and ecosystem leaders who generously shared their expertise and insights, fueling this growing community of changemakers. 🎥 Watch these inspiring moments unfold through our video. This summit was made possible thanks to the support of Moody's Corporation as part of the Greentech Initiative, which supported climate-focused startups across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

I cannot wait to partner with these incredible partners next year to identify and support over 500 climate tech startups seeking to scale blue economy, renewable energy, climate adaptation, and food security solutions. This is what cross-ecosystem collaboration looks like, and I couldn't be happier.

Looking back on an incredible past six months at Village Capital. A huge shoutout to the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit for driving timely and meaningful conversations around impact and gender-lens investing; and bridging the funding gap for African startups. Special thanks to everyone who joined our roundtable discussion on the state of climate tech in Africa as we explored trends, challenges, and priorities shaping the sector. I’m especially grateful for the successful completion of the first phase of the Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa program in partnership with Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. I am excited to continue collaborating with our five incredible ecosystem partners from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique as we drive sustainable innovation across the continent. Here’s to building on this momentum in 2025—looking forward to what’s next! #earlystageinvesting #climatetech #sustainableentrepreneurship #impactinvesting #purposeledfinancing Ahmed Fadl Audrey Mate Eva Waweru Makena O. Catalyst Fund Emerge Livelihoods Ennovate Ventures Reach for Change Herland CERVEAUX Chandni Hirani Aaron Leopold Rachel Crawford

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with five Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) selected to continue their journey in the Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa program, supported by Norway through Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. These five Ecosystem Builders will now receive funding to run their own programs for climate-focused entrepreneurs and allocate direct capital to impact-creating startups working on innovative solutions in their regions. This builds on the success of our first phase, where 14 Ecosystem Builders across Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania received training and capacity building. Meet the selected Ecosystem Builders: ⭐ Catalyst Fund (Kenya) ⭐ Reach for Change Foundation (Ghana) ⭐ Ennovate Ventures (Tanzania) ⭐ Emerge Livelihoods (Malawi) ⭐ ideiaLab (Mozambique) These partnerships are crucial for addressing the region's entrepreneurial challenges, including access to finance and talent gaps, while fostering a sustainable pipeline of innovative, climate-focused solutions. Together, we’re supporting locally-led solutions that can drive lasting change across sub-Saharan Africa. Read more about this initiative here: https://lnkd.in/gAMAxybQ

🌍✨ A huge thank you to our incredible mentors who generously dedicated their time and expertise to support the startups in our Greentech Europe 2024 Autumn Cohort! 🌟 Over the course of this cohort, 53 mentors guided our visionary founders through 60+ hours of mentoring, helping them tackle some of the most pressing environmental challenges. We are so grateful for your contributions and hope to see you in our upcoming programs. Wishing you all a joyful and restful holiday season! ✨ 💚

Great ideas are like a spark: depending on whether they get the fuel they need, they can ignite into something incredible and impactful, or they can fizzle. That’s where Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) come in: ESOs are the backbone of entrepreneurial ecosystems – often the first line of support for impact-creating, diverse-led startups. Our entrepreneur investment-readiness programs are just one facet of our work. We’re working to build more inclusive, equitable ecosystems – where great ideas and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and locations can thrive – which includes supporting our peer “supporter” organizations. That’s why we develop, test, and share new tools, processes, and practices that ESOs can use to unlock social and financial capital for early-stage, impact-creating entrepreneurs – supercharging their ability to provide essential resources, mentorship, and networks to locally-led startups to help them thrive and create meaningful change in their communities. You can “support the supporters” by making a donation to fuel VilCap’s ESO programs - sharing our tools and resources with these vital support organizations around the world. Learn more about our ESO initiatives and consider supporting our work with a donation today! https://lnkd.in/e96H_G4w

**Job opportunity** At Village Capital, we've always believed that reducing barriers to social and financial capital for early stage companies requires doing things differently, and questioning traditional centers of power. That's why I'm particularly excited to share this JD for a Fund Manager to lead an innovative (US-focused) investment model designed to address capital gaps for underrepresented entrepreneurs while strengthening the capacity of community-led Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs), building on our longstanding work with ESOs, most recently through our Resource initiative. This is a unique opportunity for someone with a passion for driving systems-level change to help shape and lead a groundbreaking initiative with the potential to transform how capital flows to underserved founders. This position is ideal for someone who: ✅ Is eager to grow their career in early stage investing while making a tangible difference in addressing systemic inequities. ✅ Values the critical role ESOs play and is energized to collaborate with them to support underrepresented founders. ✅ Leads with a combination of entrepreneurial spirit, strategic thinking, and enthusiasm. If you’re excited about transforming how we support underrepresented founders – or know someone who is – please share or apply here: https://lnkd.in/eESxUBcj

Join my team at Village Capital to lead a pioneering pilot fund addressing capital gaps for underrepresented entrepreneurs in the US while strengthening the capacity of community-led Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs). This position is ideal for someone who: ✅ Is eager to grow their career in early stage investing while making a tangible difference in addressing systemic inequities. ✅ Values the critical role ESOs play and is energized to collaborate with them to support underrepresented founders. ✅ Leads with a combination of entrepreneurial spirit, strategic thinking, and enthusiasm. Ready to shape the future of equitable investing or know someone who is? Apply now: https://lnkd.in/euyAkfQQ Special thanks to Joey Womack Benjamin J. Vann Brit F. for their leadership and guidance in shaping this initiative!

There’s a major opportunity for impact investments within legal tech – and it has the potential to meaningfully democratize access to legal systems. I recently had the opportunity to join the TLTF Summit for a dynamic panel about impact investing and maximizing impact in the legal tech space with Jake Wood (Co-Founder & CEO at Groundswell), Amber H. H. Porter, MBA (Senior Venture Capital Associate at American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact), moderated by Matt Greenfield of Rethink Education.  The panel and attendees in the room agreed there is a significant opportunity and enthusiasm for impact investing within the legal and justice tech sectors. With much of the justice system still running on decades-old structures and systems, the space presents the classic disruption opportunity that early-stage investors love. And yet, as more and more wade into the opportunity, it will be essential to ensure that justice tech – and particularly solutions that are focused on justice-impacted populations – center the communities they are designed to support and don’t become co-opted by investors who place profit over mission. At Village Capital, our journey to the justice tech space builds on multiple threads of our work in economic mobility: we know that those who have navigated the criminal and civil justice system face disproportionate challenges when it comes to financial health, access to quality jobs and educational resources, and their physical and mental health. Since 2020, with partners such as American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact and Dream.Org, we have been building a Justice Tech ecosystem to support justice and legal-impacted people and communities in the US. We were delighted for the opportunity to share more about this important slice of the legal tech space at the Summit, and particularly loved the spotlight on innovative startups in this space like Rasa (led by Noella Sudbury, one of our Justice Tech Fellowship alum) and Paladin (led by Kristen Sonday). A big thank you to Zach Posner and Rebecca Engel, MBA for inviting the conversation on impact investment in this space – it was incredible to see firsthand how the Summit has grown significantly, reflecting the growth and potential of the legal tech space. The opportunity for justice tech isn’t limited to the US and I’m excited to see the space grow globally. If you’re interested in learning how you can plug into the ecosystem – whether as an entrepreneur, investor, or ecosystem builder – check out the work by our collaborators at Justice Technology Association and our interactive community and resource map: https://lnkd.in/eHu5Q55W (Photo credit: TLTF Summit)

Join Village Capital to lead a pioneering pilot fund addressing capital gaps for underrepresented entrepreneurs while strengthening the capacity of community-led Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs).  Ideal for someone passionate about: ✅ Growing their career in early-stage investing to drive systems-level change ✅ Collaborating with ESOs to support underrepresented founders. ✅ Leading with an entrepreneurial spirit and strategic vision. Ready to shape the future of equitable investing? Apply now: https://lnkd.in/gg48A5ta