Recognizing structural and systemic barriers in the technology sector which lead to the dominance of certain types of solutions and founders, the UNICEF Venture Fund is seeking to facilitate an inclusive and gender-responsive innovation in three key areas:

Area 1: Investing in diverse and underrepresented founders (especially women founders)

Area 2: Increasing the availability of digital products and services that can solve the specific unmet needs of vulnerable and underrepresented populations (such as children, women, people living with disabilities and refugees)

Area 3: Facilitating inclusive user design in the development of innovation to reduce bias and increase accessibility of underrepresented populations.  

The GRIC is an opportunity to recognise companies leading the way for developing gender-responsive solutions and/or businesses in Asia and MENA regions. Its primary objective is to identify, recognise and invest in companies facilitating  outcomes that can help close the gender gap.

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The opportunity

Is your company working on an innovative gender-responsive solution in Asia or the MENA regions?

The Venture Fund will select five outstanding companies in gender-responsive innovation which will receive an award:

The selection committee comprised of GITEX Asia and GITEX Global, and the UNICEF Venture Fund will evaluate the nominated companies according to the defined criteria to assess and select the winners of the challenge.

GRIC winners will be announced at GITEX Global Conference taking place at Dubai World Trade Center, on October 14-18.

Companies will receive mentorship and technical assistance from Venture Fund experts to enhance their investment readiness and potential for future funding from the Venture Fund. It will comprise:

• More than 10 hours of technical mentoring consisting of Open Source, frontier technology, privacy and security, diversity, equity, and inclusion mentorship,
• Additional support to understand and navigate the Venture Fund sourcing and selection process.

The Venture Fund continues to seek further collaborations with values-aligned partners to support innovation challenges, design sprints and deliver strategic technical assistance to build greater equity and trust across technological solutions.

Apply to this opportunity if your company is working on a frontier tech solution addressing any gender disparity in Asia and MENA regions.

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