2019 UNICEF Funding Opportunity for Tech Startups

Seed funding: The Fund provides USD 50 — USD 90,000 in equity-free seed funding. The money is intended for prototype testing and validation, and to get it to a stage where the company has proof that the solution works.

Financial and technological support from UNICEF’s Venture Fund is available for companies that can show a strong founding team and a clear path to improving the lives of children.

If you’ve got a start-up registered in one of UNICEF’s programme countries (see complete list here) and have a working, open source prototype (hardware or software) showing promising results, the UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking for you.

We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: blockchain, UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, machine learning, quantum computing, genetic engineering, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites and human dynamics.

We are seeking open-source projects that have already been started - you’ve been running it for a while - it shows some positive indicators - but you need funding to take it to a level where it can really attract additional investment and funding by generating real data.

You might need a small amount of money to get your prototype to the stage where the company has proof that the solution works for other people. Maybe another developer or two are needed, design help to communicate what the project can do or some server space. Refactoring something into a new language because the initial one won’t scale. Testing it in a new area. Getting some data points.

The UNICEF Innovation Fund can help with these kinds of investments upto $90,000 to support the acceleration of your company’s work. The next stage after that proof would be going for more funding (this could be private sector investment or grant-funding, or other; depending on the type of technology and solution.

Check that your company and project meet all the eligibility requirements

You must be registered as a private company
Your company/institution must be registered in a UNICEF programme country (see list here)
You’re working on open source technology solutions or willing to be open source under the following licenses or their equivalent:
(i) for software, a BSD license,
(ii) for hardware, a CERN license and
(iii) for design or content, a CC-BY license,
You have an existing prototype of the open source solution with promising results from initial pilots.
Your solution has the potential to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children.
Your project generates publicly-exposed real-time data that can be/is measured.