Village Capital supports entrepreneurs from a diverse set of backgrounds and industries as the world's largest organization centered on seed-stage impact startups. Through their affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, Village Capital has invested in 110 startups that have raised more than USD $500M in capital.
Alger Torres
Sr. Investment Analyst
Village Capital Latin America
2009
Year founded
Headquartered in Washington DC, with offices in India, Kenya and Mexico, Village Capital strives to create social change and make impact investing more diverse and equitable. Village Capital achieves this goal through their innovative peer-selected investment process, which flips the power dynamics of traditional VC by taking decision-making power away from investors and giving it to groups of entrepreneurs. This system results in a more decentralized process that ultimately helps deliver capital to a wider range of startups.
Since its inception in 2009, Village Capital has empowered more than 1,100 entrepreneurs in 28 different countries, supporting businesses that embody their core areas of sustainability, financial health and future of work. Their practices and technology center around seeing past investor blind spots—resulting in a portfolio in which 44% of their ventures are founded by women.
“Creating competitive landscapes and having a benchmark is key to a good analysis, and we rely on PitchBook to find which companies could be direct competitors of the firm we are analyzing. This provides us a better understanding of the added value and the competitive advantages of the analyzed company, as well as the potential receptivity of these ideas by the market.”
– Alger Torres, Sr. Investment Analyst, Village Capital Latin America
To find and reach out to entrepreneurs
To stay up to date on trends and opportunity areas
Sourcing companies in a global market
Firms like Village Capital, with ventures across many regions and industries, require data that is both flexible and easy to access. Alger Torres, Sr. Investment Analyst at Village Capital Latin America, says that his team uses PitchBook the most when researching startups for their accelerator programs and analyzing companies within their cohort’s selection. Using tools like the “Research Center”, Torres and his team can quickly assess the status of different industries, compare them to global benchmarks and determine their viability for different programs.
“Features like the market map overview and company distribution have helped the team to structure important research materials and establish our opinion regarding specific industries.”
Alger Torres, Sr. Investment Analyst
After they decide on an industry, Village Capital uses the “Companies and Deals” filter, which allows them to narrow down their search even further. With this feature, they can focus their results based on criteria such as sector, region, total capital raised and investment stage to quickly find the startups best suited for their different accelerator programs.
“When we have selected the companies for our final cohort, we use PitchBook to establish a benchmark to measure their profitability based on the potential market and their competitors. PitchBook provides us a better understanding of the value added and competitive advantages of the analyzed company, and the potential receptivity of these ideas by the market.”
Alger Torres, Sr. Investment Analyst
Village Capital
Empowered 1,100+ entrepreneurs
in 28 countries
40M+ customers served
with critical services
100+ programs
launched worldwide
111
Investments
44% female led
companies in portfolio
Replicating success and adapting to market changes
In addition to using PitchBook to source startups, Village Capital also takes advantage of the platform to stay current and evaluate their place within the market.
Torres notes that while the firm’s objectives and usage of the platform can vary day by day, the PitchBook Web Platform keeps up with their needs and serves as a catch-all solution for any task at hand. He also points to PitchBook’s Daily News as an important resource for staying proactive and following important trends in private equity and venture capital.
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