Mexico City, Mexico & New York, NY (June 13th, 2022) – Village Capital and The Lightsmith Group announced that eight startups were selected to be part of the Climate Accelerator: ASAP focused on spotlighting climate innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The open call had a focus on supporting startups and small and medium-sized enterprises that are scaling market-based and contextualized solutions to critical climate adaptation and resilience challenges. More than 100 startups from 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean applied to be part of the accelerator, including: Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Jamaica. 52% of the application pool has at least one female founder.
Eight top companies from four different countries composed the final cohort, 80% of them are working outside the major technological hubs in their country. These companies are supporting technologies, products, and services that help increase climate resilience and adaptations of local communities and vulnerable businesses to specific impacts of climate change.
Here are the eight selected startups:
From June 13th to June 17th 2022, the selected cohort will participate in one-week intensive virtual workshops on improving investment-readiness. Each company will have personalized one-on-one working sessions, and the opportunity to work closely with industry experts, investors, and the partners’ ecosystem to develop the network and tools they need to scale their impact. Additionally, on June 17th 2022, the accelerator will hold an online Investor Forum, where participants will pitch their businesses and have the opportunity to connect with potential prospects through breakout rooms. Registration is open to interested investors and other stakeholders here.
ASAP is a grant-funded initiative led by The Lightsmith Group, in partnership with Village Capital, and with the support of the Global Environment Facility’s Special Climate Change Fund. Additional support is provided by Conservation International and the Inter-American Development Bank.
For more information, reach out to Ben Wrobel at Village Capital or Brian Parham at Lightsmith.
About Village Capital
Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has invested in more than 110 program graduates.
About The Lightsmith Group
The Lightsmith Group is an investment firm pursuing superior returns by investing in companies that address critical societal needs. Lightsmith invests in growth-stage companies providing technology-enabled business services and solutions in the areas of energy, water, food and agriculture, and climate resilience. Lightsmith won the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance competition in 2016 for its concept for the first climate adaptation and resilience private investment strategy and received the Lab’s formal endorsement in September 2017. For more information on The Lightsmith Group, please see: www.lightsmithgp.com. Lightsmith also oversees the Adaptation SME Accelerator Project (ASAP), an initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility, Conservation International, and the Inter-American Development Bank. For more information about ASAP, please see: www.climateasap.org.
About Conservation International
Conservation International works to protect the critical benefits that nature provides to people. Through science, partnerships and fieldwork, Conservation International is driving innovation and investments in nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, supporting protections for critical habitats, and fostering economic development that is grounded in the conservation of nature. Conservation International works in 30 countries around the world, empowering societies at all levels to create a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable planet. Follow Conservation International's work on Conservation News, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
About The Global Environment Facility
The Global Environment Facility was established 30 years ago to tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, it has provided more than $21.5 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $117 billion in co-financing for more than 5,000 projects and programs. The GEF is the largest multilateral trust fund focused on enabling developing countries to invest in nature and supports the implementation of major international environmental conventions including on biodiversity, climate change, chemicals, and desertification. It brings together 184 member governments in addition to civil society, international organizations, and private sector partners. For more information please see: www.thegef.org
About the Special Climate Change Fund
The GEF-managed Special Climate Change Fund has two decades of experience helping vulnerable countries adapt to a changing climate, focusing on bankable, innovative solutions that can be scaled. Since 2001, the SCCF has invested more than $360 million in adaptation measures that have benefited more than 7 million people and increased private sector engagement in climate resilience products and services. Through the SCCF, donor governments have supported the training of more than 200,000 people, expanded access to climate information services, and provided flexible solutions to enable developing countries including small island states to adapt to a fast-changing climate.
