UNICEF’s Innovation Fund invests in early stage, open-source, emerging technology digital public goods with the potential to impact children on a global scale.

The program also provides product and technology assistance, support with business growth, and access to a network of experts and partners to allow for scale. The UNICEF Innovation Fund is the first financial vehicle of its kind in the United Nations and enables UNICEF to learn from and to shape markets of emerging technology that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion persons’ needs. 

Key Audiences

  • Start-ups from UNICEF programme countries (especially female-founded companies) seeking equity-free investments and mentorship, potential opportunities to work with UNICEF and other UN agencies, who have open source solutions or are in the process of making their solutions open source

  • Donors and funders that want social impact cases and proof that funds are used responsibly and that results are sustainable

  • Institutional investors that are looking for a return on investment and mechanisms that de-risk their investment

  • UNICEF Regional and Country Offices either looking to fund solutions through the Innovation Fund and/or identify and scale solutions within their countries and/or regions of work

Goals

As part of the Innovation Fund cohort experience, the UNICEF Office of Innovation organizes cohort workshops aimed at bringing together portfolio companies from around the world for expert mentorship and collaboration. Its goal is to build successful digital solutions into Global Digital Public Goods, to ensure fair, equitable, and open access to these unique and new tools for human development on a global scale. 

Image: UNICEF Office of Innovation

Approach

For these workshops, the design team is responsible for designing and facilitating the user experience and product development sessions, as well as planning the overall workshop experience. The team also provides ongoing technical support for emerging tech startups as they develop, test, and validate their solutions. These sessions are complemented by business and technical mentorship to further strengthen strategies and outcomes. The results of the workshop sessions are incorporated into each startup’s work plan and influence the milestones and trajectory of digital products and services that are developed over the funding period.

Through these cohort workshops, companies learn the principles of user research and user-centered design, as well as receive training in foundational and directional research and testing methods. We then tailor one-on-one mentorship over the funding period based on the maturity of each startup’s offerings, helping to oversee user research and testing initiatives as well as build capacity within their teams to ensure that the solutions designed are inclusive, desirable, and scalable for their users.

Case Study

Drones for Social Good Global Conference

How might UNICEF help governments build and implement resilient global health systems at scale using last-mile delivery solutions? To answer this question, UNICEF hosted its first Drones for Social Good global conference and workshop at its New York Headquarters. Colleagues from UNICEF offices in Malawi, Vanuatu and Kazakhstan shared lessons and their experiences using drones – from delivering life-saving medical supplies in hard-to-reach areas, to saving lives in search and rescue operations. 

We designed workshop activities, frameworks, and facilitated discussions that revolved around using drones for global health, to save lives in emergencies and strengthen community resilience. Along with our UNICEF colleagues, a multidisciplinary team of more than 85 drone experts from across the world came together to create a roadmap that will strengthen UNICEF’s Drones programme. 

Impact

In conjunction with business and technical mentorship, UNICEF’s Innovation Fund program has collectively led several early-stage investments to successfully obtain follow-on funding and scale solutions across countries and contexts. To date, the Innovation Fund has made investments in 126 frontier technology solutions that have the potential to create a positive change for humanity. 

MONEY INVESTED

$10M+

BENEFICIARIES

16.9M

 

graduated solutions

84

follow-on funding raised

$12.5M

 

female-founded companies

40%

companies generating revenue

79%

Featured In

Cointelegraph
Forbes
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Wired UK
World Economic Forum

Roles

Workshop design and facilitation, mentorship, technical support

Team

UNICEF Office of Innovation

Dates

2018–2021

website

unicefinnovationfund.org