Less than 15% of global venture capital goes to female founders. Since its formation in 2009, Village Capital has sought to remedy that problem: designing, testing and sharing tools and processes that drive investment to entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. Village Capital run accelerators and bootcamps that teach entrepreneurs how to speak the language of investors; believing that diverse backgrounds lead to a diversity of ideas, and a diversity of ideas leads to a diversity of solutions.
Village Capital’s latest cohort is focused on the “Future of Work and Learning”. Over the past four months, 12 startups – targeting a variety of issue areas, from student engagement to job placement – have participated in mentoring sessions and business-focused workshops throughout the country. After each session, the companies are ranked and rated by their peers, in a radical bottom-up due diligence process proven to mitigate implicit bias. After the final convening, which will take place between December 10 – 12, the Michelson 20MM Foundation will invest $100,000 in the two highest ranked businesses.
Watch a brief interview with Village Capital CEO, Allie Burns.
Listen to Village Capital’s Marissa Lowman discuss workforce development on a recent edition of the Voctech podcast!
Stay tuned for an announcement celebrating the highest ranked, peer selected companies! Click here for a complete list of the companies in competition.