RIN has partnered with Village Capital to provide refugee enterprises access to the Abaca investment matchmaking platform. On Abaca, enterprises can calculate their Venture Investment Level, providing a common language for founders and investors and a roadmap for where to go next.
Why Abaca?
- Enterprises that enter into the Abaca platform gain access to a diverse pool of investors (Their enterprise is listed on both RIN and Abaca’s platforms);
- Enterprises can calculate their Venture Investment Level, providing a common language for founders and investors and a roadmap for where to go next;
- Enterprises’ Abaca profiles enable the RIN to target our technical assistance to more acutely respond to each enterprise’s needs;
- Enterprises can plan and track their progress on Abaca charts that record growth milestones across eight categories investors care about most;
- Based on these tools, enterprises learn more about their company’s strengths and weaknesses from an investor’s perspective, makes funding conversations more productive.
How Abaca works
By answering a few questions on the platform, Abaca will assess the maturity (“level”) of the refugee enterprise and help create a company profile, a process that only takes about 10 minutes.
According to the submitted responses, Abaca will share a report with the refugee enterprise’s overall venture investment level, from Level 1 (a founding team and an idea), to Level 9 (a large, market-leading company). The objective is not to get the highest level – it’s to find the right level based on specific milestones to provide refugee enterprises with a common language or lexicon to use when speaking with potential funders and investors to raise capital and accelerate growth.
The RIN will use the information provided in the questionnaire to do an initial mapping of “refugee investments” that will plot company stages, sectors, and geographies for a group of potential investors and grant funders. Ultimately, our goal is to build a global network of investors and funders that back businesses creating long-term solutions to global forced migration – and to match strong entrepreneurs with those resources.