UNICEF 2023 Innovation Fund For Frontier Technology Solutions For Child Online Safety

Published: 16 May 2023

The UNICEF Innovation Fund in partnership with the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and Giga is looking to make up to $100K equity-free investments to provide early stage (seed) finance to for-profit technology start-ups that have the potential to benefit humanity.

If you are a start-up using machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain or extended reality, registered in one of UNICEF’s programme countries, and have a working, open source prototype (or you are willing to make it open-source) showing promising results, the UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking for you.

UNICEF Innovation Fund For Frontier Technology Solutions

Application Deadline	July 28, 2023
Type	Entrepreneurs
Sponsor	United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
Gender	Men and Women

Benefits of UNICEF Innovation Fund For Frontier Technology Solutions

• All companies of the portfolio receive tailored support for product development, building a business model, and user testing based on their own needs assessment.
• Startups also gain access to the UNICEF Ventures team’s tech expertise, networks and platforms to help them reach the stage where they can prove that their solutions work and tap into larger funding sources.
• We provide up to $100K equity-free funding to open source frontier tech solutions showing promising results. The funding is intended for prototype testing and validation, and to get the solution  to a stage where the company has proof that the solution and the business model work. This includes being able to generate data to show impact, usability and strategy.

Requirements for UNICEF Innovation Fund For Frontier Technology Solutions

 Projects are assessed by UNICEF Innovation Fund team and recommended for funding to the internal board. Companies need to fulfill the following mandatory requirements to be considered for funding

• Registered as a private company
• Registered in a UNICEF programme country (see list here)
• An existing prototype of the open source solution with promising results from initial pilots
• Solution has the potential to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children      
• Generating publicly exposed real-time data that is measurable

Working on open source technology solutions (or willing to be open source) under the following licenses or their equivalent:

• For software, a BSD license, 
• For hardware, a CERN license and 
• A CC-BY license for design or content, a CC-BY license

Please review the additional information for the Request for Expression of Interest here.

Selection Process

The following criteria will be used:

• Relevance of solution for children and young people, problem-solution fit and potential for application at global scale
• Novelty of project and alignment with Innovation Principles 
• Suitability of the team and key personnel to implement the project
• Project budget and financing

Application Deadline

July 28, 2023

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on form.jotform.com to apply