The UNICEF Venture Fund is looking to make up to US$ 100,000 in non-equity investments to provide early-stage (seed) funding to for-profit startups developing frontier technology solutions that can positively impact the lives of the world's most vulnerable children and youth. If your product is registered in one of UNICEF's programme countries, is a working prototype, has demonstrated results and is (or could be) open source licensed, we recommend that you apply.

Eligibility

• Only private companies are eligible.
• Individuals cannot submit expressions of interest. The organisation submitting an expression of interest must be a legally registered company. If funding is granted, the university is responsible for all contractual responsibilities with UNICEF.
• Only a registered company can submit an expression of interest. We recommend approaching a start-up incubator or accelerator in your region. They will often be able to help you with the incorporation process.
• NGOs or CSOs are not eligible to submit an expression of interest for funding through this investment vehicle. If you are an NGO or CSO working on a great prototype, we suggest you approach the UNICEF country office in your country to find out more about other funding and partnership opportunities available.
• You have a working prototype - it works. You're at a stage where you need a small amount of money to get it to the stage where you can prove that it works to other people. Maybe you need to hire another developer or two or get design help to communicate what your project can do. Maybe you need some server space. Refactoring something in a new language because what you first wrote won't scale. Testing it in a new area. Getting some data points. These aren't big financial investments, but they're what the Innovation Fund can help with, to speed up your work.
• An eligible company can submit more than one expression of interest for different projects. Each will be assessed independently on the basis of the criteria. The funding limit will be applied to each application.

CriteriaThe following criteria will be used:

• Relevance of the solution for children and young people, suitability for solving the problem and potential for application on a global scale
• The novelty of the project and its alignment with the Innovation Principles
• Suitability of the team and key personnel to implement the project
• Budget and project funding

      Results

• Only the selected companies will be contacted with information about the results and the next steps.
• The company will be asked to open the IP of its product or idea. The company will hold the open source licence. In addition, the data collected in real time will be shared publicly. All other intellectual property is owned by the company.
• UNICEF will issue Corporate Institutional Contracts to successful candidates. The participating entity - a private company - needs to be a legal entity, i.e. companies registered so that UNICEF has a contractual relationship with them. The companies selected for funding will need to register as vendors/suppliers with UNICEF.
• The funds invested must be used for what the company details in its proposal.

Deadline: 28 July 2023

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