2021 Blockchain cohort from UNICEF Venture Fund

[jwflory]

Summary

Tracker issue to follow DPG nomination process for five (5) incoming teams to UNICEF Innovation Fund

Background

In July/August 2021, the UNICEF Innovation Fund is on-boarding five new companies as part of incoming Blockchain cohort. These teams have workplans with the Fund for the next 12 months. The teams are receiving early-stage seed funding for solutions and products in early development. The intent is for them to become Digital Public Good nominees by the end of the investment period in 2022.

Details

• [x] BX Smart Labs (Mexico): Decentralised application for saving circles. The payments will be done on the blockchain allowing the saving circles to be built regardless of the location of the users. The smart contract will automatize the payments and withdrawals on each period ensuring the users receive their funds. #1246 #1245
• [x] Kotani Pay (Kenya): A platform for transfers/remittance, savings, withdrawals, loans, and payments. #1034 #1033
• [x] Rumsan (Nepal): Digital Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) management system. It uses mobile-based blockchain tokens for emergency response and recovery programs for humanitarian agencies. #1140 #1141
• [x] Treejer (Iran): Treejer is an open-source and forest-based climate action protocol to track trees and growth, a financing tool to facilitate micro-loans and payments to rural tree planters. #1235 #1234
• [x] Xcapit (Argentina): A platform using blockchain for planning, gamified savings, and wealth management including access to financial services such as interest-bearing accounts, loans, etc. #1174 #1173

Outcome

Five teams on track to becoming DPG nominees within first six months of UNICEF investment

[jwflory]

Update: The eight teams are now seven. All seven teams are currently working with the Innovation Fund. Repositories for each of the teams can be found below:

• BX Smart Labs (Mexico): https://github.com/Bloinx
• Grassroots Economics (Kenya): https://gitlab.com/grassrootseconomics
• Kotani Pay (Kenya): https://github.com/KotaniLabs/kotanipay
• Leaf Global Fintech (Rwanda): https://github.com/LeafGlobalFintech/loan_app
• Rumsan (Nepal): https://github.com/rumsan
• Treejer (Iran): https://github.com/treejer
• Xcapit (Argentina): https://gitlab.com/xcapit-foss

[jwflory]

Related to this issue:

• unicef/inventory#85
• unicef/inventory#86
• unicef/inventory#87
• unicef/inventory#88
• unicef/inventory#89
• unicef/inventory#90

[jwflory]

All UNICEF Venture Fund companies from this cohort have either applied to become a full DPG or have already been approved as a DPG. Should this issue remain open until all pending reviews are completed or should we close this one as complete?

CC: @nathanbaleeta @prajectory

[nathanbaleeta]

All UNICEF Venture Fund companies from this cohort have either applied to become a full DPG or have already been approved as a DPG. Should this issue remain open until all pending reviews are completed or should we close this one as complete?

CC: @nathanbaleeta @prajectory

@jwflory we can close this issue once all pending reviews are completed in the next couple of days. Thanks