UBS and Village Capital launch VC Pathways Program for Black/Latinx/Female Entrepreneurs Seeking Early-Stage Funding and Supp...
January 12 2018 - 9:15AM
Business Wire
Program to run in Philadelphia, Chicago,
Atlanta in 2018
UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager, and Village Capital, an
organization that finds, trains and invests in entrepreneurs
solving real-world problems, today announced the launch of the VC
Pathways program. VC Pathways is a
national program that will train and support African American,
Latinx and female founders to increase their competitiveness for
seed-stage venture investment and early-stage incubator and
accelerator programs.
UBS and Village Capital will launch the VC Pathways program in
Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta, each of which were identified
for their potential to support early-stage ventures. Key to the
implementation of the program are the local entrepreneur support
organizations partnered with VC Pathways in each city, which
include Philadelphia-based Ben Franklin Technology Partners,
Atlanta-based Goodie Nation and Chicago-based I’m Black In Tech and
Blue 1647.
VC Pathways will work with these partners to select a cohort of
founders in each city to participate in a three-month program that
provides entrepreneurs with hands-on training, advice and tailored
engagements from mentors, investors, UBS executives and Financial
Advisors who will help their companies become investment-ready.
"VC Pathways is an invaluable extension of UBS's ongoing
commitment to advancing inclusive entrepreneurship," says Jamie
Sears, UBS Head of Community Affairs, Americas. "Many of our
clients are entrepreneurs in these cities, so we are excited to be
playing a part in strengthening the pipeline of diverse founders
and giving startups access to investors, best-in-class training,
and other resources that will help their businesses succeed."
"There is no shortage of potential among underrepresented
founders. They have firsthand experience in solving critical issues
faced by the majority of the US population," says Allie Burns,
Managing Director of Village Capital. "What’s lacking is the social
capital and tangible resources to scale these solutions. We’re
hoping that, through this program, startups will gain exposure to
the thought-process behind investment decisions and a framework to
use milestones to clearly communicate their growth and
success."
Defining and meeting business milestones is an important
indicator of success for high-growth startups. Having a roadmap to
demonstrate these to investors is critical to helping founders move
away from over-reliance on "friends and family" funding and focus
instead on other early-stage investors. To assist with this, each
local VC Pathways program will provide:
- Guidance through Village Capital’s
VIRAL curriculum. Every entrepreneur in a VC Pathways program
will receive training on the Venture Investment Readiness Awareness
Level (VIRAL) curriculum, which helps entrepreneurs set and surpass
specific milestones to make them competitive when raising
capital.
- Connections to angel investors.
The VC Pathways program will facilitate formal and informal
interactions between startups and angel investors and provide
access to a Startup Heat Map, which identifies monetary and in-kind
resources at every funding level.
- Tangible business support. The
program will also provide resources for building a business,
including Amazon Web Services (up to $5,000 in credits), access to
a Kiva Zip Loan worth up to $10,000, up to $2,000 in grant funding
awarded for hitting certain program milestones and network-building
opportunities.
Participants in the three-month program will be primarily
high-growth businesses that are tech-enabled, pre-seed or seed
stage ventures, with an established minimum viable product and have
less than $500,000 in revenue or raised funds. Priority will be
given to startups solving problems within Village Capital’s five
investment areas: Education, Healthcare, Financial Technology,
Agriculture and Energy.
For more information about the VC Pathways offering and key
local program dates, visit: https://vilcap.com/program/vcpathways/.
To learn more about UBS's additional inclusive entrepreneurship
programs through the UBS Elevating Entrepreneurs initiative, visit:
https://www.ubs.com/microsites/elevating-entrepreneurs/en/home.html
# # #
About UBS Wealth Management Americas
Wealth Management Americas is one of the leading wealth managers
in the Americas in terms of financial advisor productivity and
invested assets. Its business includes UBS’s domestic US and
Canadian wealth management businesses, as well as international
business booked in the US. It provides a fully integrated set of
wealth management solutions designed to address the needs of
ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients.
About UBS
UBS is committed to providing private, institutional and
corporate clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in
Switzerland, with superior financial advice and solutions while
generating attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders. Its
strategy centers on its Wealth Management and Wealth Management
Americas businesses and its leading universal bank in Switzerland,
complemented by its Global Asset Management business and its
Investment Bank. These businesses share three key characteristics:
they benefit from a strong competitive position in their targeted
markets, are capital-efficient and offer a superior structural
growth and profitability outlook. UBS's strategy builds on the
strengths of all of its businesses and focuses its efforts on areas
in which it excels, while seeking to capitalize on the compelling
growth prospects in the businesses and regions in which it
operates. Capital strength is the foundation of its success.
About Village Capital
Village Capital is a global venture capital firm that finds,
trains and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems.
Since 2009 we have invested in over 70 ventures across 15
countries, with 15 profitable exits and supported hundreds more
through our collaborative investment-readiness programs. Village
Capital graduates have leveraged initial capital 25:1, created over
11,000 jobs and served over 6 million customers. For more
information, visit www.vilcap.com and follow @villagecapital on
Twitter.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180112005125/en/
For UBS Wealth Management Americas:Maya Dillon,
212-713-3130Mobile: 917-615-7094Maya.dillon@ubs.com
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