Supporter: How to join a Coalition
For investors, accelerators, mentors and other entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs)
This article covers how supporters, including investors, mentors, accelerators and other support organizations can use Abaca to join and access a coalition.
An Innovation Coalition on Abaca is a network of entrepreneurs, investors and entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) that have joined together around a shared purpose. Examples of shared purposes include knocking down barriers to capital for under-represented founders, raising the visibility of investable startups in a particular location, or getting investment in innovations solving big global problems, such as climate, financial inclusion or healthcare access.
This article assumes you are joining a coalition for the first time on Abaca.
By joining a coalition, you are joining entrepreneurs and other supporters with a shared interest. You will have access to a pipeline of founders, companies and innovations matching the coalition’s stated purpose, whether it’s a focus on a particular sector, geography, social impact or inclusive investing.
Each company that joins the pipeline will provide structured information, including a proven investment readiness assessment and Venture Investment Level that can be used to better match companies with the right kinds of capital and support faster. In short, the coalition can ensure critical funding reaches businesses solving critical problems you care about most.
Note: If you already have an Abaca account, you can join a Coalition when logged in. Go to “My Company” in the top navigation bar and click “Edit Coalitions” in the box on the right hand side of the page titled “Coalitions.” Then, select the coalition you want to join.
If you’re new to Abaca and haven’t received a coalition invitation directly, you can learn about and join publicly available coalitions by clicking on the “Join the Coalition” button from the main navigation. Many organizations start Coalitions but prefer to promote them through their own websites and social media, so be on the lookout for those in your network.
If you are here for the first time, select the Coalition you want to join, then click the blue button for supporters. (Entrepreneurs will click the green button to join)
You will land on a page that describes the Coalition sign-up process. Click “START” to be directed to the first step.
You will start by creating your company profile, followed by three simple steps that will help us understand the types of businesses you would like to support or invest in. This information will be part of your profile for entrepreneurs and will help match you with the startups that closely align to your preferences.
Note: If you already have an Abaca account, go ahead and Sign in from the link in the top bar. You’ll be able to review and update your latest information and preferences.
Step 1: Venture Investment Level, will ask you to indicate the level or a range of up to four levels of investment readiness the startups you most often support or invest in. For example, if you work with earliest-stage companies, choose Level 1, or, say Levels 1-3.
The box on the right hand side will display characteristics of startups who fall within each level display so that you can fine-tune your range.
Step 2: Questions. Each Coalition will ask at least a couple of questions, sometimes more, which will help entrepreneurs in the Coalition identify the best sources of support for them. The answers will also be used in calculating match scores so that you’ll be able to discover the companies that best fit your criteria more quickly.
Step 3 : Interests. This section will ask you to add additional criteria for startups to match with you, such as sector(s) and geographic location(s). Under locations of interest, you may select continents, countries, cities, and/or regions.
You can also select other criteria that you would like us to use when matching you to startups. This page lists some common criteria supporters select, but you can use the search box to find more options
Next, you will be asked to indicate how important each criterion is for you. We will use this in calculating match scores.
Once all is done, click “Finish” to set up the password and verify your account for your future login to access Abaca.
To log back into your account, go to www.abaca.app and click “log in” in the navigation bar. You can also bookmark your profile.
Check out the “how to navigate a Coalition guide ” and “how to improve matches” through your profile.
