More than 65 applications received for Cohort 1 in March 2016

With the official close of our initial application period last month, we decided it was a good time to reflect on Capria’s launch as well as our plans for the future. It’s been an exciting period, so we wanted to give you all a few highlights and some of the exciting things to look forward to over the next few months.

Highlights from Initial Recruitment

When we launched Capria three months ago, we knew there was a need for more early stage capital, particularly in emerging markets. But the breadth of interest for Capria’s first cohort throughout the world surprised even us!  Below are some of the highlights:

• Announcement coverage in Forbes, VC Circle, Huffington Post, and Disrupt Africa.
• 225 people requested applications for Capria from 45 different countries
• 65 complete applications were submitted from 24 different countries
• Nearly 30% of application requests and 32% of full application submissions came from Africa.
• A surprising level of interest was shown in developed markets as well, as seen in the map

Capria Application Requests (Orange) and Application Submissions (Blue)

Getting on the Road

Now that the official application period for Cohort 1 has closed, the Capria team has an ambitious plan to visit a number of target geographies over the next few months. We recently participated in Sankalp SE Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia, and visited Singapore and Manila. Capria team members will also be participating in:

• December 2015: An Investment Management Training organized by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and a meeting of the Latin American Venture Capital Association in Sao Paulo.
• February 2016: The Sankalp Africa conference in Nairobi and the Latin American Impact Investing Forum in Mexico City.

In summary, Capria team members have visited or are planning to visit the following countries soon to meet with fund managers, investors, entrepreneurs and others involved in early-stage investing: Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and India.

If you know of any events building the impact ecosystem, or if you are an aspiring fund manager who will be at one of these conferences or are based in one of the places listed above and would like to meet with us, please contact us.

We’re now scheduling our 2016 cohorts

Cohort 1: We expect to invite 2-3 fund management teams to Seattle in March well after the winter weather is gone for the inaugural four-week Intensive. During this period, fund managers will learn about the fundamentals of running an impact fund as well as interact with other teams and our large global network of advisors

Cohort 2: The application period for our inaugural cohort has now closed. However, those interested in participating in future cohorts may still obtain the application form. The formal application process for the next cohort will begin in the first quarter of 2016, with the cohort likely to take place in late summer. Aspiring fund managers can request a copy of the application by visiting https://capria.vc/apply/

We look forward to welcoming our first cohort next year and will be posting an update with feedback based on our initial application review soon.

Capria Global Advisors group continues to expand

We now have 13 advisors (whom we can publicly talk about) who’ve signed up to both work with the core Capria team and to engage with cohort participants to help them in many different areas. See full list of Capria Advisors >