Yesterday saw the launch of Village Capital London, an incubator programme for European social businesses.
Applications are open for any for-profit social business located in the UK and Europe. Sixteen social entrepreneurs will be selected for Village Capital London to participate in a 12-week programme with workshops focused on fundraising, marketing and designing for impact. The 16 participants will develop the core skills needed to attract investment and scale their businesses as well as receiving mentoring and coaching from a team of experienced advisors.
The program culminates in peers selecting the two entrepreneurs to receive the �50,000 investment prizes.
Stephen Rockman, founder of Merism Capital, said: ?We?re really excited about launching Village Capital London, which will help European entrepreneurs with the skills needed to build successful social businesses. Being able to leverage Village Capital?s network and experience will provide a fantastic boost to the whole of the impact investment sector, so we encourage start-ups from across Europe to apply for Village Capital London?.
Village Capital is an incubator program, started in 2010, which has been run in New Orleans, Boulder, Mumbai and San Francisco. It has been cited as ?#1 Trend to Watch in 2010? on Change.org; featured in Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine and Beyond Profit. 82 entrepreneurs from more than 500 applications have now been through the program.
Village Capital London will be the first programme to be run in Hub Venture Labs, a new social venture incubator space created by Merism Capital in partnership with Hub Westminster.
This central London space will be accessible to all participating entrepreneurs and will enable them to work collaboratively and gain peer feedback, as well as entrepreneurs having access to regular mentoring sessions.
?We?re aiming to build a fertile ecosystem for social ventures, a place to take ideas to action and impact,? explained Alice Fung and Indy Johar, co-founders of Hub Westminster. �?In addition to relationships with investors, entrepreneurs also need to build peer support networks for validation and collaboration. �This programme is a great opportunity for them to do just that, as peers are each other?s best advisors - and toughest critics.?
The Village Capital programme was created 2 years ago by First Light Ventures, a leading seed-stage social venture fund, and has grown into a network of incubators spanning Boulder, New Orleans, San Francisco and Mumbai.
n 2010, 81 entrepreneurs (carefully selected from 500+ applicants) went through the programme, with 12 successful entrepreneurs sharing awards of over $1m at the end. �The group attracted a further $4m of investment and created over 200 jobs.
For more information and to apply for Village Capital London, go to www.hubwestminster.net/hubventurelabs or follow @hublab and @merismcapital on Twitter.
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