Village Capital

Village Capital is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded in 2009, that works to democratize entrepreneurship. Its principal activity is running accelerator programmes for early-stage founders, with a focus on three areas: Climate Innovation & Adaptation, Economic Mobility, and Equitable Access to Essential Services. The organisation has run more than 150 accelerators and worked directly with over 1,100 founders across 28 countries and four continents.

Alongside its programmes, Village Capital offers impact investing services to funders, including fund management, sourcing and due diligence. It is known for a peer-selected investment model, in which entrepreneurs in a cohort collectively choose a peer to receive investment - a method that won the McKinsey-Harvard prize for innovation in 2013. Its Smarter Systems process, designed for investors, is reported to raise evaluation scores of women-led startups fivefold. The organisation also partners with locally-led Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) to strengthen regional ecosystems.

The work draws on expertise in accelerator programme design, peer-selected investment models, due diligence, fund management, entrepreneurship research and ecosystem development. Culture is shaped by a mission-driven, nonprofit structure and by values of transparency, equity and peer-driven decision-making; the approach is collaborative and community-oriented, drawing inspiration from village banking. Village Capital was started as an experiment by co-founders Ross Baird and Bob Patillo, with an initial pilot co-designed by Sean Foote, and retains an orientation toward innovation and challenging conventional investment practice.