27 Start-Ups Announced as Founding Members of UNICEF Venture Fund Pledge
The frontier tech start-ups from emerging economies pledge to “give forward” to support just and open innovation for children.
Over the last decade, the UNICEF Venture Fund has identified, tested, and grown 149 open technology solutions from start-ups and UNICEF offices across 87 countries.
By applying a philanthropic approach, the Fund has made equity-free financial investments, providing mentoring and access to markets to frontier tech start-ups based in emerging economies to develop solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems, reaching over 110 million people among whom 34.3 million are children.
Now, the Fund embarks on a new era of its investment approach. With a vision to expand its reach and leverage the potential of technology for good, alumni start-ups working on frontier technologies including Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and machine learning, all from emerging economies, are announced as founding members of the Venture Fund Pledge.
In a show of support for the shared values of tech justice, equity, and inclusion, 27 companies which make up 36 per cent of the Fund’s Alumni start-up portfolio, have made voluntary commitments to ‘give forward’ by offering financial or in-kind support to the Fund’s mission.
"The support from the Fund has been fundamental to Somleng’s growth. The funding enabled the expansion of our product offering, generated additional revenue, and dramatically increased our impact. The mentorship also proved to be invaluable, as were efforts made to facilitate introductions to UNICEF country offices and regional offices around the world."
David Wilkie, Founder, Somleng
At the core of the Fund’s mission is catalyzing an ecosystem of a diversity of tech startups to deliver social impact and leverage the potential of tech for good. Commitment from pledge members to give forward will enable future cohorts to do so.
“While the alignment between founders and the UNICEF Venture Fund has always been strong, we recognize the need to further enhance our shared impact. Alumni startups committing to give back to maximize our collective impact for a more equitable future for children is the best proof of value created we could receive,”
Hanna Burkhardt, UNICEF Venture Fund Lead
In 10 years, the Venture Fund has disbursed capital and mentorship to 81 companies in 37 countries. These startups have successfully generated on average 2.6 times its initial investment in follow-on funding from third parties, totaling approximately USD 25 million. To date, 65 per cent of the Fund’s portfolio companies are generating revenue and 40 per cent are recording profits.
Fulfilled pledges will help the Fund continue to mentor and invest in tech entrepreneurs to test and pilot open-source solutions with the potential to accelerate results for this and coming generations.
How the Venture Fund Pledge works
Graduates of the Venture Fund’s seed-stage investment period are invited to make a voluntary pledge to share a proportion of their financial success in the form of a donation to the Fund. In-kind support is pledged in lieu of financial support from early-stage companies committed to ‘give forward’.
Pledge members, with support from the Fund, will receive a ‘soft-landing’ after their graduation by being part of a network of mission-aligned, multidisciplinary tech entrepreneurs. When pledges are fulfilled and members become donors to the Fund, they unlock the potential to partner with UNICEF to accelerate progress for children globally.
“We are driven by the need to do more, faster and smarter to address the global challenges affecting the lives of children globally. Our alumni companies have succeeded in testing and scaling tech solutions in a diversity of communities that need them most. We’re grateful for their commitment as pledge members to do even more – together,”
Hanna Burkhardt
