Over the previous 4 years, the United Nations Worldwide Youngsters’s Fund has been investing in startups making use of open-source expertise, hopin
Over the previous 4 years, the United Nations Worldwide Youngsters’s Fund has been investing in startups making use of open-source expertise, hoping to make the world a greater place, however is trying to step up its sport even additional now.
Cecilia Chapiro, an funding advisor at UNICEF Ventures, instructed Cointelegraph that UNICEF had launched its innovation fund in 2016 with the purpose to help rising applied sciences being inbuilt creating international locations. Since then, UNICEF has invested in over 50 startups throughout 35 international locations. “We spend money on applied sciences which have the potential to affect billions of individuals, particularly kids in rising international locations,” Chapiro mentioned.
In line with Chapiro, UNICEF recognized blockchain as one of many applied sciences that might make a worldwide affect. As such, UNICEF invested $100,000 of equity-free funding by means of its innovation fund a yr and a half in the past into six startups, three of which had been targeted on blockchain.
To additional perceive blockchain expertise’s affect, UNICEF launched a cryptocurrency fund supported by the Ethereum Basis in October 2019. Chapiro defined that the crypto fund is predicated on the identical framework because the innovation fund; the one distinction is that investments are made in cryptocurrency. She mentioned:
“UNICEF’s innovation fund permits firms to partake in a one-year portfolio expertise. We offer non-financial advantages that associate with the funding. We search for firms with a prototype that may be reviewed and strengthened to profit numerous customers. We help the businesses in plenty of methods, serving to put together them to talk with extra traders after the one-year program ends.”
Blockchain: A possibility for humanitarian development
On June 20, UNICEF’s crypto fund made its largest crypto funding thus far, price 125 ETH — round $28,600 on the time — in eight open-source expertise firms. Instantly following this funding spherical, UNICEF introduced that it’ll make investments one other $100,000 price of each United States {dollars} and crypto in blockchain startups that leverage open-source expertise to fight international challenges, particularly these associated to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chapiro, who helped launch UNICEF’s crypto enterprise, defined that the fund has enabled the group to noticeably spend money on blockchain startups. She mentioned: “After investing in three blockchain firms over a yr in the past after which a couple of extra simply two weeks in the past, UNICEF’s crypto fund has reached a brand new degree of development to accommodate the funding of about 5 to eight extra open-source blockchain initiatives.”
In line with Chapiro, UNICEF is trying to help early-stage startups with a blockchain prototype that may be remodeled and ultimately deployed in international locations that want the expertise probably the most. For instance, over the last funding spherical, UNICEF invested in blockchain startup StaTwig, an organization primarily based in India that makes use of a blockchain to trace the supply-chain of rice being delivered from the Indian authorities to low revenue areas.
Sid Chakravarthy, the founder and CEO of StaTwig, instructed Cointelegraph that India makes use of a Public Distribution System to ship important items to people dwelling below the poverty line. Chakravarthy defined that every state in India operates its personal PDS, noting that COVID-19 has created a fair greater demand for PDS merchandise. He mentioned:
“In Telangana State, the place we’re at present working, there are 28.three million beneficiaries. These beneficiaries obtain loads of backed necessities, resembling rice, dal, kerosene and sugar by means of this program. Rice is crucial product. It’s procured from state farmers and merchants, processed in rice mills, then transported to and saved at numerous warehouses and eventually distributed to beneficiaries by means of honest worth outlets.”
Whereas India’s PDS could seem efficient in principle, there are a variety of issues that must be addressed. For example, Chakravarthy famous that there’s a lack of visibility into the stock in India’s provide chains. A extra clear system may make sure that there are sufficient rice baggage in every warehouse to fulfill the provision and demand of every state. As well as, transparency may present greater high quality merchandise that aren’t uncovered to harsh environmental situations.
StaTwig has been leveraging blockchain to create a digital identification for each single product. “With rice, each bag will get a singular digital ID,” mentioned Chakravarthy. Merchandise are then tracked from the farmers, all the way in which to the beneficiaries. Knowledge is recorded, displaying every location the place the luggage have been, the chain of custody and the standard of the product.
UNICEF has additionally beforehand invested in Mexico-based startup OS Metropolis, which has been issuing blockchain-based authorities property and working a pilot to deploy 1,000 blockchain IDs to allocate academic property for kids, resembling diplomas. Jesús Cepeda, the founding father of OS Metropolis, instructed Cointelegraph that the pilot is step one towards…