Overview

In December 2022, the UNICEF Venture Fund, in collaboration with Giga, a UNICEF-ITU initiative to connect every school to the Internet, onboarded four startups focused on developing solutions that improve accountability for service delivery and policy implementation, grow and improve funding flows, and improve equity in access to connectivity and the digital world. 

Selected among 350 startups from over 50 countries, each of the four startups received up to $100K equity-free investments in USD and cryptocurrency through the UNICEF Venture Fund and UNICEF CryptoFund. We are thrilled to see all four startups successfully graduate from the Fund. 

UNICEF carefully selected each company in this cohort not only because they are building pathways toward improved accountability for service delivery and policy implementation, improved funding flows, and improved equity in access to connectivity and the digital world, but also because their solution can solve cross-cutting challenges that UNICEF's programme divisions have identified, such as increasing access to resources, accountability, community engagement, and efficiency of funding flows. 

Throughout the investment period, UNICEF leveraged its vast network to connect the companies to UNICEF's work in their respective countries and provided technical and strategic support, as part of the technical assistance programme. It has been over a year since we began collaborating with this cohort. During that time, we helped identify strategic avenues to further support and scale their work, including through pathways for UNICEF itself to benefit from the technology infrastructure developed.

The startups also worked with an extensive group of notable partners, customers, and investors. A sample of these collaborators include: 

RedCross

Mercycorps

MedicAid

Hope Raisers Global Foundation

Jhpeigo

Roddenberry Foundation

Rich-Oak Life Initiative 

Vision for Nigeria Foundation

Girl Child Initiative 

Social Good

DataMynt

This Blockchain Cohort focused on improved accountability for service delivery and policy implementation, funding flows, and equity in access to connectivity and the digital world, further validated the Fund’s hypothesis that developing in the open results in various avenues for scaling, financial sustainability, and global adaptation for digital solutions.

Two of the four graduating companies from the UNICEF Venture Fund program were certified as Digital Public Goods (DPGs) by graduation. This certification, awarded by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, is a significant achievement that unlocks tremendous potential for these solutions to be adopted and deployed by a wide range of global stakeholders working in financial inclusion and development. The DPG certification also enables these companies to focus on scaling their impact and expanding their reach, as they have met the rigorous standards for being open-source, openly licensed, and adhering to privacy and security best practices. This impressive outcome speaks to these companies' intrinsic strengths and capabilities, which were carefully selected for the program based on their potential to build pathways to financial inclusion. It also highlights the immense value of the technical assistance, mentorship, and support provided to the companies by the UNICEF Venture Fund team throughout the program. Through workshops, expert guidance, and connections to UNICEF's global network, the Fund helped strengthen the companies' solutions and prepare them for greater scale and impact. The fact that 50% of the graduating cohort achieved DPG status demonstrates the high caliber of the companies and the effectiveness of the support they received.

Milestones, impact, and growth

Convexity has developed an open-source solution designed to streamline and enhance the transfer of humanitarian aid by leveraging blockchain and smart contract technologies. Through its CHATS suite of apps, Convexity is disrupting cash and voucher assistance programs by enabling donors to identify and verify the intended beneficiaries and transfer cash to them seamlessly. By harnessing the transparency and immutability of blockchain, Convexity's CHATS system can help reduce fraud, increase accountability, and ensure that every dollar donated has the maximum impact on the lives of those in need.

Results to date

• To date, CHATS has been deployed in 3 humanitarian aid projects. In the pilot deployment, leveraging CHATS reduced the donor's overhead costs by 20%.
• Collectively, they have reached 13,613 unique beneficiaries, 11% of whom are children and 30% of whom are women.
• The Convexity team has continued to enhance CHATS's technological capabilities to improve efficiency, transparency, and security in aid distribution. They have built out a custom Zero Knowledge (ZK Proof) identity system with artificial intelligence that, upon further testing and validating, can be integrated with a government-issued identity system in any country of operation or biometric-generated identity. 

XMesh, has successfully developed the innovative XOneFi solution and its accompanying XOneFi Mobile app. The XOneFi technology platform empowers communities, small business owners, and individuals who lack reliable internet access to become mini-Internet providers, enabling them to deliver affordable broadband internet to their local communities. At the core of this solution lies a blockchain-based system aimed at a fair and equitable Internet-sharing model to address Internet access inequality. By leveraging this technology, XMesh aims to benefit children and families in underserved communities worldwide, providing them with reliable and affordable internet connectivity, which important for education, communication, and economic opportunities in today's digital age.

• They have conducted two pilots in Nigeria to date. One of the pilots was at a secondary school for girls in Nigeria. Using the XOneFi solution, the female students were able to video call with peers across the globe for the first time. 
• XOneFi has been able to reach internet bandwidth speeds of 30mbps.

WiiQare has developed a blockchain-based health service platform. This platform connects payers, diaspora members, their beneficiaries, and healthcare providers in Africa. A standout feature of WiiQare’s platform is the Health Pass, an NFT voucher available for purchase on the platform using euros or stablecoins. This pass enables diaspora members to provide healthcare access to their  family members back home  swiftly and securely. The platform ensures transparency and accountability in healthcare funding, expedites access to healthcare for beneficiaries, and simplifies payment processes for healthcare providers.

• The HealthPass solution is currently being tested with three healthcare providers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The HealthPass has been successfully used by 39 patients so far. 

Investtools has developed a blockchain platform that acts as a benefits platform to incentivize ISPs to connect schools in otherwise remote or inaccessible regions. The platform rates the difficulty/impact of each region and converts these points into benefits to attract these ISPs.  Brazil's government is interested in the piloting platform and has already provided data. The solution aspires to have a multifaceted impact, addressing critical needs in education, promoting social and digital inclusivity, stimulating local economies, and establishing a replicable model for addressing global connectivity challenges.

Insights from the Cohort

• Blockchain’s contribution to improving humanitarian assistance is vital, but it must be adaptable and versatile to meet diverse needs and contexts, and, where able, serve as a complementary addition to existing systems.
  The CHATS app demonstrated how blockchain could facilitate direct peer-to-peer transactions with minimal intermediaries and secure digital identities, ensuring aid reached intended recipients efficiently and with reduced fraud risk. Initial deployments showed that CHATS saved approximately 35% on prospective programming costs by streamlining beneficiary targeting and registration. It also cut future program costs by 90% for humanitarian partners, as onboarding recipients took an average of 2 minutes via the field agent app or seconds with CSV file imports. Beneficiaries could be added to campaigns from an existing database in 4 minutes after obtaining consent, saving time and costs of field visits and allowing for rapid program scaling. Overall, CHATS reduced aid delivery time by 80% compared to manual methods.

A key takeaway from these deployments was the need for a flexible, scalable architecture to accommodate diverse organizational requirements and user types, which is essential for addressing the unique and complex challenges of humanitarian aid programs.
 

• Blockchain’s role in digitally connecting communities and empowering small enterprises to be key players in such communities isn’t yet full-fledged, but remains a priority.
  Conventional ISPs struggle with the high costs and logistical challenges of extending services to remote communities, hampered by the need for substantial investments in centralized infrastructure like towers and cables. To address this, the Venture Fund invested in exploring blockchain as an alternative solution for digital connectivity in remote areas.
   

XOnefi, developed by XMesh, showcased blockchain's potential for connecting underserved communities by enabling them to act as mini-ISPs. The distributed nature of blockchain is crucial for ensuring data immutability, a key factor in delivering value to customers.

XMesh also successfully demonstrated blockchain's capacity to enhance connectivity through a pilot program in a Nigerian school, achieving download speeds of up to 30 Mbps using the XOneFi system and satellite internet. This enabled students to engage in global video calls for the first time.

While blockchain technology holds promise for small ISPs to generate income by monetizing their internet connections, which could significantly expand access in underserved areas, its success during the company’s tests depended on the quality and coverage of satellite internet provided by third-party providers like Starlink.

• Blockchain's ability to enable financial access may not always be realized when the necessary conditions aren't in place to activate or require this capability.
  
  While WiiQare's blockchain-based health service platform offers benefits like transparency, accountability, and secure, swift access to healthcare, it may not always be the best solution in contexts where cash is still predominant. In regions where the economy is primarily cash-based or where regulations don’t lend themselves well to the digital economy, the adoption of digital solutions like NFT vouchers and payments in stablecoins can face significant barriers. Limited digital infrastructure, lack of familiarity with blockchain technology, and a preference for cash transactions may hinder the effectiveness and widespread adoption of such platforms. While Health Pass lodged successful transactions by 39 users in the DRC, these transactions happened in a cash-dominant context, limiting wide adoption and validation of the solution.