NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm Village Capital has raised a $17.7 million fund from 29 investors including Steve and Jean Case to continue investing in social enterprise startups around the world.

“We started seven years ago trying to reinvent how we help entrepreneurs and inventors trying to change the world,” Village Capital CEO Ross Baird told DC Inno in an interview. “What’s different about us is how we fund them, using peer-selection to pick the companies. We go after the people and industries looking at real problems in energy, water, health, areas like that.”

Village Capital raised $13.2 million for its VilCap Investments program just last summer, with money going to startups doing things like using data management to improve farming, provide power to rural homes and arrange telemedicine services for people with limited or no access to healthcare.

Top image: A startup manager during a recent Village Capital accelerator program. (Image courtesy of Village Capital)