RPCV Ventures
RPCV Ventures is a privately owned Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) that assists Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps staff (collectively "RPCVs") to implement social impact business opportunities in their former host countries and impacted areas of the United States.
Our approach is based on the premise that RPCVs provide an effective and unique means of sustainably generating a broad range of social impact businesses, due to their proven commitment to social impact and the rigorous training and "hands on" experience from their Peace Corps service.
RPCV Businesses We Support:
Founded by RPCV Rahama Wright, and building off of her Shea Yeleen beauty brand, Yeleen Beauty is a co-manufacturing facility and tech hub built to lower the barriers to market entry for plant-based BIPOC beauty entrepreneurs.
RPCVs Ackeem Evans and Jermaine Hartsfield founded CIVA (formerly Election Bridge), a civic intelligence platform, to connect and empower organizations, communities, and individuals to take informed action, access funding, and create sustainable social impact.
Founded by RPCV Ben Bellows and his partners, Nivi is an AI-powered end-to-end health consumer engagement platform that enables organizations across the healthcare delivery spectrum to drive better health outcomes by supporting consumers on their health journey from awareness to action, and keeping them engaged with their health.
A Peace Corps Volunteer collaborates with local beekeepers to improve beekeeping and honey production in Comoros.
A Peace Corps Volunteer works with local basket weavers in Senegal
A Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America works with a local partner on a business plan.
Since 1961, Peace Corps Volunteers have been thrust into challenging environments and tasked with building meaningful and collaborative relationships with their host-country counterparts to design impactful projects. They handle the funding, community support, and material resources to complete projects across sectors including agriculture, infrastructure, economic development, education, environment, health and youth development.
Their day-to-day immersion and cross-cultural partnerships sharpen the skills required to be a successful social impact entrepreneur and empower many RPCVs to pursue entrepreneurship when they return home to the U.S.
Notwithstanding these unique skillsets, there are limited institutional support systems to assist RPCVs in starting impactful businesses when they return.
A Community Economic Development Volunteer talks to a local farmer in the Dominican Republic.
RPCV Ventures seeks to fill that gap and help leverage the experience of RPCVs into transformational and profitable social impact businesses. Its founders, Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala, 1988-1991), a social impact professional and former CEO of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), and Michael Caretnay Bailkin (India, 1963-1965), a social impact entrepreneur and former NPCA Board Member, determined that the best way to support such entrepreneurs is through a dedicated business enterprise that combines private capital and business expertise with the unique skills and perspectives of returned volunteers.
Contact Us
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an investor, we are always on the lookout for new partners in this venture. Let us know what you have in mind!