Program Recap: 8 accelerators, 5 continents

In the last few months of 2019, our global Village Capital team ran 8 accelerator programs across 5 continents.

How is that possible? We’re still wondering ourselves, but it has to do with the passion of our dream team and the inspiration we get from each cohort and founder we work with across the world. Also, coffee!

We had the chance to support founders from more than 60 startups representing 34 nations, and we got to watch as our cohorts thoughtfully reviewed and selected their peers for investment through our unique peer-review process. 

As we’re well underway into 2020 — we’d like to invite all entrepreneurs to join our network, Abaca, to find out about upcoming programs on five continents. But first, here’s a snapshot of a few of our programs and the entrepreneurs we had the pleasure of getting to know and supporting last year.

Moving Finance "Forward"

Last year Village Capital launched Finance Forward, a first-of-its-kind global initiative with  MetLife Foundation and PayPal to support entrepreneurs developing financial services that improve financial health of consumers and small businesses. This program is the first of its kind: a truly global fintech accelerator operating localized fintech entrepreneur support programs on 4 continents concurrently.

We ran our first four Finance Forward accelerators in the past few months:

• Our first Finance Forward South Asia accelerator featured startups from India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Read more here.
• Our Finance Forward US cohort also showed that innovation in the US comes from far and wide: 73% had their headquarters outside of the startup hubs of New York, Boston, or the Bay Area. Read more here.
• Our Finance Forward Latin America also tapped into innovation from unexpected places: we held workshops in Mexico City, São Paulo, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile. Learn more here.
• Our Finance Forward MENA program featured 11 startups building on the progress in the region. Learn more here.

Sustainability and the Future of Work 

We’re keeping busy beyond Finance Forward. Our Agriculture Africa program was focused on startups improving  outcomes for small farmers and addressing food security. Learn more about the peer-selected startups, Ghana’s Complete Farmer and Nigeria’s ReelFruit, here. 

Finally, our Future of Work US program was Village Capital’s fifth US-based program for startups preparing workers for a future that will be defined by automation, robotics, and machine learning Read more about the program here.

Want to hear more about upcoming programs? Sign up for updates from Village Capital!

Entrepreneurs can also access our proven investment-readiness framework without participating in one of our accelerator programs, and match with investors on our platform, Abaca. Join Abaca for free today!