Mid-Investment Update: Progress of UNICEF's First Climate Action Cohort
In September 2023, the Venture Fund announced its investment in its first climate action cohort: eight companies developing solutions focused on early warning systems, waste management platforms, community engagement initiatives, and clean energy efforts. These companies were selected through a competitive process with applications from 400 companies in 72 UNICEF programme countries. The selected companies expand the Fund’s reach to a diverse range of countries including Albania, Cameroon, Mali, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Timor Leste.
By November 2023, the startups embarked on their journey with an immersive workshop at the UNICEF Office of Innovation headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Over four intensive days, the entrepreneurs engaged in technical mentorship sessions, laid strategic foundations for the coming year, and connected with Venture Fund donors and ecosystem partners. The personalized mentorship program aims to refine their value propositions, develop Open Source solutions, generate impact evidence, and integrate best practices in business strategy, product design, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Climate Action Cohort is currently mid-way through the investment period and over the next six months will be working to test and refine their solutions with feedback from end users, measure impact and reach of their interventions, and continue to build partnerships and coalitions to advance their solution in compliance with local, national, and global regulatory standards and best practices.
Early Warning Systems
Similie: Enhancing Disaster Preparedness with AI
Founded in Timor-Leste, Similie developed an early warning system (EWS) using AI and machine learning (ML) to collect community-level data from low-cost IoT sensors and automatically sends alerts. Protecting over 300,000 people in Timor-Leste and having alerted authorities to 8 floods since 2021, Similie is now expanding its EWS with Fund support by developing an Open Source, ML-informed risk assessment to provide forecasted alerts and disaster impact insights. In the next six months, Similie is deploying additional weather stations in Dili for data collection and will test this, which will allow other organizations to use it to improve their own disaster preparedness and response. Read more about Similie’s progress.
Community Engagement
Equinoct: Community-Sourced Data for enhancing Real-Time Climate Hazard Monitoring
In India, Equinoct is integrating AI and ML with community-sourced data to provide real-time monitoring and early warnings of climate change hazards. The company developed rain gauges which will be deployed to community gatherers along the Periyar and Chalakudy river basins in Kerala. This bottom-up model will source data from affected communities, including children and youth, during the monsoon season. This data will be integrated alongside AI-driven groundwater, river, and reservoir water level prediction models to enable prediction of flood risks and better inform disaster mitigation. Read more about Equinoct’s progress.
Map Action: Community-Sourced Environmental Risk Reporting
In Mali, Map Action is empowering communities to report environmental and sanitation issues via a smartphone app. This data is mapped digitally, providing authorities with clear, actionable insights. Recently, Map Action developed an AI model to categorize and prioritize reports, enhancing the responsiveness of local authorities. In the upcoming months, they will host a workshop in partnership with water and sanitation government agency DNACPN and GIZ to introduce their solution to over 20 government organizations, NGOs, and UN agencies, which will launch the pilot phase of the enhanced app. Read more about Map Action’s progress.
Map & Rank: Using Drone Mapping for Climate Risk
In Cameroon, Map & Rank combines location intelligence, big data, and ML to map climate risks. They have deployed drones to generate high-resolution maps in northern Cameroon, providing critical insights for flood and drought preparedness. The next phase will involve testing their solution features and engaging with the community to refine their approach. Read more about Map & Rank’s progress.
Zed Labs and Kolektivo: Enhancing Local Impact Economies with Blockchain
Zed Labs, in collaboration with Kolektivo in Trinidad and Tobago, is developing a Blockchain-based solution to identify, fund, and coordinate environmental and economic activities in communities globally. Kolektivo leverages open-source Blockchain technologies to enhance trust among stakeholders and enable secure, rapid value transfers. This approach aims to build local impact economies around regional climate action, addressing the disconnect often seen in top-down funded projects. Currently, they are testing the solution with stakeholders, planning for a community-wide launch in the latter half of the investment period. Read more about Zed Labs and Kolektivo’s progress.
Waste Management
Intelligent Network Solutions Albania: Monitoring Waste Landfills with AI
Intelligent Network Solutions is tackling illegal waste landfills using AI and GIS. Their platform analyzes satellite and drone images to detect illegal sites while monitoring legal landfills. During the next six months, the team is looking to gather feedback on their solution in North Macedonia or Albania. Read more about the company's progress.
Clean Energy Efforts
Renovus: Empowering Small Solar Generators
Renovus is building Grinplus, an AI-powered platform designed to support small solar energy generators. Historically, only large wind and solar farms could access the renewable energy certificate market. Renovus aims to change this by creating a diverse network of small generators. In the first six months, they onboarded users to test features like energy generation monitoring. Moving forward, Renovus will introduce services like issuing renewable energy certificates, which will help redirect financial resources to underprivileged communities and small enterprises. Lessons learnt from Renovus’ journey provide important considerations for UNICEF’s own journey working towards energy sustainability. Read more about Renovus’ progress.
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