The UNICEF Innovation Fund 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’ve got a start-up 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.
What the UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking for:
We are currently looking to invest in companies that are using data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence or similar technologies to build solutions that respond to the following questions:
1. Are you using new sources of data such as satellite imagery or social media and applying data science or artificial intelligence techniques to understand the physical world that we live in?
- Applying deep learning to analyze satellite imagery and automatically map infrastructure such as schools, health centers, roads or cell towers
- Using digital footprints from sources like social media or mobility patterns to understand public spaces
- Exploring ML/AI techniques to help us better understand the physical world that we live in and its rapidly changing environments
2. Do you know how much knowledge is available in your language online? Was it created locally? How is content structured and how do we learn it? In other words, are you trying to use data science and AI to understand the digital world that we live in?
- Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) or similar techniques to analyze large amounts of text
- Using ML/AI to understand content structures and knowledge/learning relationships
- Exploring ML/AI techniques to help us better understand the digital world that we live in as well as its dynamics/changing trends
3. What skills will be in most demand tomorrow? Are you trying to use data science, machine learning or artificial intelligence techniques to generate new insights from data?
- Using ML/AI to understand the relationships between different variables that impact development indicators (i.e. learning, socio-economic, resilience, health).
- Applying optimization techniques to improve service delivery, resource allocation or content delivery, for example
- Predictive analysis to understand changes in the world such as job market trends or the supply and demand of skills
4. Or are you generating and curating data for any of the above?
- Gathering and combining existing data from different sources
- Generating new data through field data collection, crowdsourcing or social network platforms
- Using novel approaches to generate, as well as to validate, large amounts of training data
*When to apply
We encourage you to submit your application when ready as we will be reviewing on an ongoing basis. Only shortlisted companies will be contacted and then requested to submit a more in-depth proposal.
**Deadline February 28.
*Who can apply
- You must be registered as a private company in a UNICEF programme country;
- You are working on open-source technology solutions or willing to be open-source under the following licenses or their equivalent: BSD (software), CERN (hardware), or CC-BY (content)
- You have an existing prototype of the solution with promising results from initial pilots
- Your solution has the potential to positively impact society.
- Your company does not have to be fully down the road of having a ready product, it can be at the very beginning. Our funding is intended to seed an exploration within a company that already exists, that has a strong team and a prototype, and that can be profitable, and successful in the space of data science. Please read the FAQs for more details on the selection criteria
**Women-led projects are encouraged to apply.
