UNICEF Venture Fund Gender Responsive Innovation Challenge. UNICEF Venture Fund is committed to diversity and inclusion in its approach to early-stage investments and catalyzing new innovations developed by start-ups using cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science (DS) , drones , blockchain or augmented reality (XR). These innovations aim to address the unmet needs of marginalized and underserved children and their families.
Call
Recognizing the structural and systemic barriers in technology that lead to the dominance of certain types of solutions and founders, the UNICEF Business Fund seeks to facilitate inclusive and gender-responsive innovation in three key areas:
Sector 1: Investing in diverse and underrepresented founders (especially female founders)
Sector 2: Increasing the availability of digital products and services that can address the specific unmet needs of vulnerable and underrepresented populations (such as children, women, people with disabilities and refugees)
Sector 3: Facilitating user-inclusive design in innovation development
Selection Criteria
The Venture Fund will select five outstanding companies in gender-sensitive innovation to receive the award:
A selection committee consisting of GITEX Africa and the UNICEF Venture Fund will evaluate the applicant companies against defined criteria to judge and select the winners of the challenge.
The GRIC winners will be announced at the GITEX Africa Summit on 29-31 May in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Advantages
Companies will receive guidance and technical assistance from venture fund experts to increase their investment readiness and potential for future venture funding. It will contain:
- 10 hours of technical guidance consisting of Open Source, Business Development, Frontier Technologies, Development Software, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
- Additional support to understand and navigate the process of acquiring resources and choosing a hedge fund.
Application Deadline: May 24, 2024