Village Ventures

Village Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on companies in the media, retail, and financial services sectors. It provides for collaboration, co-investment and administrative cost sharing.

Village Ventures is an American private equity investment firm focusing on seed and early-stage venture capital investments. The firm operates in various regions throughout the United States and focuses on two basic sectors: media and financial services. The firm is based in Williamstown, Massachusetts and was founded in 1999 by Williams College alumni Bo Peabody and Matt C. Harris. Peabody is known as the founder of Tripod.com, one of the earliest dot-com companies.

Village Ventures operates as a national network of more than a dozen early-stage venture capital funds in various markets with limited venture capital presence. Among its partner funds are Point Judith Capital, 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, Highland Capital Partners, Janus Capital Group, and Sandler Capital Management along with Williams College.

Matt Harris founded Village Ventures in 1999 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Its portfolio includes SimpleReach, Metamarkets, Dwolla, Goji, GutCheck, Zipmark, Sulia, BlueTarp Financial, OnDeck, IZEA, Phreesia, Simple, Quirky, and HTG Molecular Diagnostics.

In 2012, Village Ventures made its final investment. It does accept any new proposals. The partner group at Village continues to manage the portfolio through to exit.

Some of the firm's notable investments include:

Health Guru Media

Babble.com (Later acquired by Disney, defunct in 2019.)

Narragansett Brewing Company

Ello (social network)

Chambers and Partners

Streetmail, later Everyday Health