London, UK (July 16, 2024) – Continuing their track record of supporting women-led sustainability startups across Europe, Village Capital, and Visa Foundation have announced their latest round of equity-free investments in 12 startups.
Established in 2022, the Greentech Europe initiative supports women-led, early-stage startups developing innovative solutions to address climate change in the region. To date, the program has supported close to 150 startups from 24 countries, providing them with training, expert advice, network support, and funding to help them thrive. This initiative has also successfully channeled a cumulative investment of USD 670K into 62 women-led sustainability startups, reinforcing its commitment to advocating for women-led enterprises and helping close the gender financing and resource gap on the continent.
The founders of Greentech Europe Spring Cohort utilized their investment readiness training and Village Capital’s renowned peer-selection evaluation methodology – a bottom-up approach to investing that empowers entrepreneurs to make investment decisions – to select the following startups as most investment-ready, awarding each USD 25K.
The remaining USD 70K was distributed among the following startups in the cohort:
The participants have shared their positive experiences with the program, highlighting the impactful learning and networking opportunities. “All of the materials, the assignments and how they were built, and the questions that were posed to us have been so helpful,” remarked Björk Brynjarsdóttir, Founder of Melta. “The things I liked the most were the frequent pitching, peer-to-peer sessions, the trial ranks, and the assignments in between sessions. It’s very obvious that Village Capital is on top of what they’re doing with this program.”
Wei Wu, Co-Founder of Heatrix, added, “It’s been helpful to be ‘forced’ to dedicate some time to focus on necessary strategic questions. The program was really well-structured with great, helpful input and an awesome cohort of fellow founders.”
Following the conclusion of this first cohort, the program will open up applications for its second cohort in mid-July. Visit the program page to learn more about how your startup can join the upcoming cohort.
For more information, contact Eva Waweru at Village Capital (eva.waweru@vilcap.com).
About Village Capital
Village Capital is reinventing the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Known for its groundbreaking approaches to supporting founders who are building solutions to emergent social, economic, and environmental challenges, VilCap unlocks critical social and financial capital for early-stage companies to maximize business and impact growth.
Village Capital has operated in Europe since 2016 by running over 12 accelerator programs for European entrepreneurs from more than 25 countries in the region. VilCap has supported more than 160 startups from all over Europe, working in sectors such as climate change, data privacy, financial health, and refugee tech. Learn more at www.vilcap.com and follow @villagecapital.
About Visa Foundation
Visa Foundation seeks to support inclusive economies where individuals, businesses, and communities can thrive. Through grant-making and investing, Visa Foundation prioritizes the growth of gender-diverse and inclusive small and micro businesses. The Foundation also supports broader community needs and disaster response in times of crisis. Visa Foundation is registered in the U.S. as a 501(c)3 entity.