Crypto Fund: All startups that submit their applications before 8th March 2022 and meet the qualification criteria will have the opportunity to get up to $100,000 or approximately Kshs. 10 Million each. We all appreciate the fact that access to funding for startups in Africa has been elusive in the past decades. This is mainly because of the low investor readiness and a conducive venture capital environment on the continent.
UNICEF, a United Nations body through its Crypto Fund initiative seeks to promotive innovation and smart brain entrepreneurship by investing in promising startups in the continent as a way to support job creation in Africa.
The UNICEF Venture Fund, in partnership with Giga (an Internet connection initiative), is calling for Blockchain-based software solutions for capacity building and community empowerment.
The collaboration is looking to make up to US$100,000 equity-free investment in cryptocurrency to provide early-stage seed funding and mentoring programs to profit-oriented technology startups that have the potential to benefit the larger population.
UNICEF invites expressions of interest to receive funding from the UNICEF Innovation Fund (IF). The Fund provides investment-style funding for early-stage, open-source digital public goods that address the most pressing challenges faced by children and young people. The core motivation of the IF is to identify “clusters” or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children.
We invest in solutions that can positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: blockchain, UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence.
Our funding is not necessarily limited to the above. We are interested in companies that apply tech in new, groundbreaking, ways that are scalable and globally applicable. If you are aligned with our general criteria, we want to hear from you.
Expressions of interest are invited from companies registered in UNICEF’s program countries. Interested companies must meet the criteria required to be eligible for funding as detailed below.
The Fund does not help large companies to create new business lines. UNICEF will support companies registered in these markets in UNICEF’s programme countries- with a small amount of money to move solutions to the stage where these are proven to be workable and can be implemented.
Key things to note:
- Startups will receive crypto worth US$100,000 each from UNICEF’s Crypto fund
- Crypto fund is part of UNICEF’s innovation fund, which allows the organization to hold, receive and disburse funds in cryptocurrency
- Startups registered in 190 countries and have an operational, open-source blockchain prototype or are willing to make their startup open source are eligible to get the fund.
- The deadline for application is March 8, 2022, and each qualified
The applicants for the fund will receive the funding in cryptocurrency, either in bitcoin or ether, through UNICEF’s recently launched CryptoFund.
Crypto fund is part of UNICEF’s innovation fund, which allows the organization to hold, receive and disburse funds in cryptocurrency. The CryptoFund is a pooled fund of bitcoin and ether, distributed only in crypto, targeting to create visibility and transparency accounting to donation distribution and investment processes.
CyrptoFund will facilitate startups registered in UNICEF’s 190 programme countries as a prototype Fund that seeks to explore the use of digital currencies in these countries. Forty-one of the nations are African. Startups registered in the 190 countries and have an operational, open-source blockchain prototype or are willing to make their startup open source are eligible to get the fund.
How do startups register for the CryptoFund?
- Check the eligibility criteria and make sure your startup ticks all the requirements.
- Read the complete Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) document.
- Submit your Expression of Interest.
- UNICEF encourages more women founders to apply as the foundation targets to uplift women in business.
- For startups new to crypto, UNICEF provides a step by step process for setting up crypto wallets through their email at [email protected].
The deadline for application is March 8, 2022, and each qualified startup will receive crypto worth US$100,000 each. UNICEF also advises applicants to state their country’s legislation for holding cryptocurrencies as part of their application process.
