Village Ventures is a private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 investment firm focusing on seed and early stage venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 investments. The firm operates in various regions throughout the United States and focuses on two basic sectors: media and financial services.

Village Ventures is based in Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...

 and was founded in 1999 by Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

 alumni Bo Peabody

Bo Peabody

Bo Peabody is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and Internet executive who co-founded Tripod.com, one of the earliest dot-coms, in 1992.-Tripod.com:...

 and Matt C. Harris

Matt C. Harris

Matthew Carmichael Harris is an American venture capitalist. He co-founded Village Ventures with fellow Williams College graduate Bo Peabody.Harris is the son of Jay R...

. Peabody is known as the founder of Tripod.com

Tripod.com

Tripod.com is a web hosting service owned by Lycos. Originally aiming its services to college students and young adults, it was one of several sites trying to build online communities during the dot-com bubble...

, one of the earliest dot-com companies

Dot-com company

A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...

.

Village Ventures operates as a national network of more than a dozen early-stage venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 funds in various markets with limited venture capital presence. Among Village Venture's partner funds are Point Judith Capital

Point Judith Capital

Point Judith Capital is a venture capital investment firm focusing on early stage investments in healthcare, communications and information technology companies....

, Berkshires Capital Investors, Long River Ventures, Borealis Ventures, FreshTracks Capital, Solstice Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners, Spring Mill Venture Partners, Highway 12 Ventures, Swarraton Partners, Inflexion Partners and Tall Oaks Capital.

Early backers of the firm included Bain Capital

Bain Capital

Bain Capital LLC is a Boston-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. Originally conceived as an early-stage, growth-oriented investment fund, Bain Capital today manages approximately $65 billion in assets, and its strategies include private...

, Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on investments in seed, early, and growth stage companies in the communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare, and information technology sectors. The firm's partners include: Peter Bell, Sean Dalton, Bob Davis, Richard de...

, Janus Capital Group

Janus Capital Group

Janus Capital Group, Inc. is a publicly owned investment firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It provides growth and risk-managed investment strategies and manages equity, fixed income, money market, as well as balanced mutual funds....

, and Sandler Capital Management along with Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

.

Notable investments

Some of the firm's notable investments include:

• Health Guru Media
• Narragansett Brewing Company
  Narragansett Brewing Company
  The Narragansett Brewing Company was founded in Cranston, Rhode Island, USA, in 1890. It was closed on July 31, 1981, and then re-established in 2005....
  
  
• IZEA (PayPerPost
  PayPerPost
  PayPerPost is a website which helps content creators such as bloggers find advertisers willing to sponsor specific content. The advertisers create opportunities that describe the content they are looking for...
  
  )
• Waterfront Media

External links

• Village Ventures (company website)