The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF has launched an Innovation Fund for drone start-ups, an initiative looking to provide early-stage finance to for-profit technology start-ups.
Registered drone startup in any of the UNICEF’s programme countries with an already existing prototype or service showing promising results with a potential to positively impact the lives of children and that can take advantage of the platforms the Fund offers can apply for the UNICEF Innovation Fund.
Also, the fund for drone startups is focused on solutions such as Software to collect, share and analyse data from UAVs (for low-connectivity areas); Software to manage flight and delivery operations; Business models and sustainable drone services in emerging markets; Air Safety; risk management tools; and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) Systems.
Selected startups would be provided with a network of expert mentors to help them grow their business as well as technical assistance from UNICEF Ventures team to help validate and improve their solutions. In addition to the equity-free investment/ seed funding of $50k- $100k, startups would be connected to UNICEF’s network in order to assist in scaling and maximizing impact and they would also have access to UNICEF Drone corridor in Malawi that provides the physical space for testing their solutions.
Are you looking for seed funding for your open source tech startup? You can click here to apply. Applications close on Sunday, July 22, 2018.
