The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is calling for applications from blockchain startups to apply for the UNICEF Innovation Fund 2020. This is an opportunity to receive a portion of funding in cryptocurrency (bitcoin or ether) through UNICEF recently launched CryptoFund.
The Innovation Fund is looking to make up to $100K equity-free investments (in USD and/or cryptocurrency). Also, they will provide early-stage (seed) financing and mentoring to for-profit technology startups that have the potential to benefit humanity.
So, if you have a start-up registered in one of UNICEF’s Programme countries and have a working, open-source blockchain prototype (or you are willing to make it open-source) showing promising results, you should apply.
See Also: Business funding opportunities for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
The Innovation Fund
The UNICEF Innovation Fund will invest in companies developing blockchain-based software solutions. Examples of areas of interest include, but are not limited to; Finance, Connect, Empower.
It is seeking solutions that;
- Enable people to use, earn, and hold cryptocurrencies.
- Allow people to access decentralised financial Instrument
- Explore new models to empower communities to act as their own economic hubs.
- Make financial systems more transparent.
- Allow various group to work together in a transparent and accountable nature (i.e. supply-chain, contract management, data tracking, etc.)
- Enable decentralised deal-making, for example through decentralised marketplaces
- Explore new ways of making decisions (i.e. using a decentralized method such as DAOS to determine what projects should receive funding)
- Protect user data collected through solutions through zero-knowledge proofs or other mechanisms.
The funding is not necessarily limited to the above. It also has an interest in companies that use distributed ledger tech in new, groundbreaking ways that are scalable, and globally applicable.
Benefit Of The UNICEF Innovation Fund
Seed Funding; The Fund provides up to $100,000 in equity-free seed funding, in USD. The investment is intended for prototype testing and validation, and to get it to a stage where the company has proof that the solution works.
Crypto Funding; Selected startups also have the opportunity to receive part of their funding in cryptocurrency. The UNICEF CryptoFund disburses funds in both bitcoin and ether.
Business Growth; The Fund taps into a network of mentors who help startup teams develop their business model and strategy to grow their company and ultimately profit.
Networks and Platforms; UNICEF Ventures has a blockchain and computer science team with access to corporate partnerships and use cases that selected blockchain start-ups can benefit from.
Product and Technology Development; Investee’s receive technical assistance from the UNICEF Ventures team and dedicated expert mentors to help validate and improve their solutions.
Maximize impact; As the world’s leading organisation for children, UNICEF has a network of experts and partners across its country offices who can provide localized advice and partnerships needed to reach more users.
Eligibility Criteria
- You must be registered as a private company in a UNICEF Programme country;
- Working on open source technology solutions or willing to be open-source under the following licenses or their equivalent: BSD, GNU, MIT (software), CERN, MIT, TAPR (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 the lives of children.
See Also: ITF – NECA Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) For ICT Training 2020
How To Apply
- Submit your expression of interest in English Language.
- You can preview the questions to prepare your submission.
- To support your preparation, please note that the submission form also asks for a link to a 2-min pitch video.
Please note: Female-founded start-ups are encouraged to apply.
The submissions deadline is on 11:59 PM ET July 26th, 2020. After which shortlisted candidate will contacted and requested to submit a more in-depth proposal. Click here to read more and apply. https://www.unicef.org/innovation/applyBlockchainCrypto
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