The philanthropic UNICEF Venture Fund is a unique model for equity and inclusivity in frontier tech for social impact. It makes equity-free financial and mentoring investments in open-source solutions that accelerate results for children, with an intentional lens on entrepreneurs in emerging markets and female-led and female-founded startups.
Over the last decade, the Fund has identified, piloted, and grown 149 open technology solutions from tech start-ups and UNICEF offices across 87 countries, reaching over 101 million people, among whom 34.9 million are children. Of the tech start-ups, 43 per cent are either female-founded or led.
With about 40 per cent of solutions expanded to new countries and 64 per cent of start-ups already generating revenue, the Fund illustrates the impact of inclusive, decentralized, and locally driven innovations.
By expanding international investment to support and enable entire ecosystems where young tech entrepreneurs and digital innovators can thrive, we can equip young people with the resources, access to technology, mentorship and opportunities they need to scale digital and tech solutions with the potential to make global impact and accelerate progress for, for this and coming generations.
