Abaca aligns entrepreneurs with investors and other support organizations (accelerators, bootcamps, and more) on where their startup stands now and a roadmap for where to go next.
Get your Venture Investment Level, then get matched with investors and resources.
Discover startups, get connected, track their progress, and more.
When entrepreneurs join Abaca, they take an assessment on their company’s overall investment readiness. Our matching algorithm benchmarks their company from Level 1, a founding team and an idea, to Level 9, a market-leading company.
A company’s overall investment readiness level, along with sector, region and other profile information, points founders to the right stage of funding and assistance. Category-specific levels identify milestones they’ve achieved and need to achieve before their next raise.
When investors join Abaca, they outline which stages they invest in and provide their sector and location preferences. Our matching algorithm promotes greater transparency, helping entrepreneurs understand an investor’s unique criteria.
Entrepreneur support organizations (accelerators, bootcamps, incubators, and more) can also create profiles on Abaca so that founders can easily find best-fit resources. Learn more about entrepreneur support organizations and networks on Abaca.
Abaca relies on Village Capital's proven investment readiness methodology to help companies benchmark and track their Venture Investment Level.
Village Capital developed the underlying framework over 10 years of training thousands of entrepreneurs and working with hundreds of investors across the world. Now it’s available to entrepreneurs everywhere. It’s what powers Abaca.
Each level includes milestones in eight business categories, creating a 9-level, 8-category grid, which we call the Milestone Grid. The grid challenges entrepreneurs’ preconceptions about their business’ progress, helping them see their company through investors’ eyes. This framework helps entrepreneurs articulate to investors their next steps and readiness for future investment, while also allowing investors to communicate what specifics they need to see before being ready to invest.
The grid below visualizes a startup’s progress in each business category. Entrepreneurs can quickly pinpoint gaps needed to complete the next Level. We call those gaps critical milestones, which help set priorities and are great for framing conversations with board members, investors and mentors.
Establishing the Founding Team
Setting the Vision
Solidifying the Value Proposition
Validating an Investable Market
Proving a Profitable Business Model
Moving Beyond Early Adopters
Hitting Product-Market Fit
Scaling Up
Exit in Sight
