The world’s first drone testing corridor for humanitarian and development use in Malawi,2017.

Takeda Logo supports Unicef Logo

Investing in innovation and frontier technology (2019 – 2024)

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

About UNICEF
Innovation

The UNICEF Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive and agile team. We sit at a unique intersection, where UNICEF, which works on huge global issues, meets startup thinking, technology and partners that can turn this energy into scalable solutions.

Takeda’s Collaboration with UNICEF

Takeda was the first Japan-based global corporate partner for the UNICEF Venture Fund. It was also the first corporate partner in the Venture Fund to invest in drones and health-related “Digital Public Goods*”, championing global health, innovation and child survival with ground-breaking transformational approaches.

* Health-related “Digital Public Goods”:
Open source and publicly useful digital artefacts such as applications, data, algorithms, platforms and protocols, specifically in the health sector, to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.

Investing in frontier technology, including drones

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UNICEF is accelerating progress towards SDG 3 (health and wellbeing) through innovative use of frontier technology such as artificial intelligence, drones and virtual reality. UNICEF’s Venture Fund, established in 2014, supports local start-ups in developing countries to develop products that help improve the lives of children. The Fund allows UNICEF to quickly assess, invest and grow open-source technology solutions that show potential to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. UNICEF aims to identify the frontier technologies that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion+ person needs.

Read about our focus areas.

“Digital Public Goods” including Magic Box to fight diseases

Open source and publicly available digital artefacts such as applications, data, algorithms, platforms and protocols, so-called Digital Public Goods (DPGs), can be valuable in ensuring a healthier and better future for all. There is a need to increase the number of health-related DPGs, their usability and their discoverability, to ensure that the potential of digital technologies is fully harnessed. This requires bringing together public and private partners who will build, improve, use and fund these health-focused DPGs.

Magic Box:
A Digital Public Good for epidemiological modelling

Connecting real-time data to humanitarian response tools was a challenging task that had never been done before. Magic Box is a platform using artificial intelligence, Big data and real-time data from both public sources and private sector partners to predict how and where communicable and vector-borne diseases spread and to stop outbreaks before they become epidemics/pandemics. Magic Box has been used to combat Ebola in Sierra Leone and the DRC, and Zika and yellow fever in Latin America.

Magic Box 1,Magic Box 2,Magic Box 3
Examples of data gathered and used. Left: Air travels, from Amadeus. Center: Mosquito prevalence (Kraemer et al.). Right: Zika cases, from WHO reports.

Value to be generated

Through investments in local start-ups specializing in frontier technology, we help to build a local high-tech ecosystem in developing and emerging countries that makes technology solutions openly available.

Growth

Growth: Investors get to see projects and technologies become big in a global ecosystem and deliver results that help humanity – and children in particular.

IP Stack

IP stack: Investors receive a financial return on their investment through free access to open-source intellectual property for their own use.

Community

Communities: UNICEF Innovation is creating communities of developers and entrepreneurs around the products we invest in. These communities are also of value to our partners.

Venture Fund investment process

1
Identify promising startups through open “calls” and via partners, country offices and networks
2
Assess start-ups against criteria, similar to those used in venture capital investing to find early-stage projects with a prototype or pilot completed.
3
Chosen projects also receive:
  • mentoring and business development
  • links to UNICEF Ventures’ tech expertise, networks and platforms
  • early-stage research into new technologies to benefit children assets and infrastructure that add value to the individual seed fund investments
Innovation

Outcomes Targeted through the Partnership with Takeda (over 5 years)

Investing in 25 health-focused or drone startups to develop, realize and scale cutting-edge solutions for children
Scaling artificial intelligence-based epidemiological modeling in 3 countries
Total contribution JPY 1 billion (2019 - 2024)

Read more on the company’s webpage

Results

Through the five-year partnership with Takeda, the Venture Fund has supported 29 startup solutions and 15 DPG projects that have directly impacted 15.9 million people across 75 countries.

Supported Innovation #1: Bebbo

As one of the digital tools supported by UNICEF’s Venture Fund, Bebbo reaches over a million parents across 14 countries, empowering families with advice tailored to support their children’s health and development. “Being a parent is a joy, but it’s also a responsibility,” Elena Stefanova, a mother from North Macedonia, shares. “Bebbo helps me ensure I’m making the right choices for my child, with advice on healthy food, vaccination schedules, and new games that my child loves.”

Supported Innovation #2: Intelehealth

In Kyrgyzstan, where the under-five mortality rate remains high in rural areas due to limited healthcare access, Intelehealth, a telemedicine initiative, is making a significant impact. It has helped people save up to 37km of travel and $15 per consultation. “Access to quality healthcare is a right, not a privilege—a right that telemedicine is helping bring to every child, everywhere,” says Yulia Oleinik, former acting UNICEF Representative in Kyrgyzstan.

Supported Innovation #3: Oky

Menstruation remains one of the most persistent taboos in many countries. UNICEF is addressing this challenge by involving girls in developing the Oky period tracker that improves access to accurate menstrual health information and advances gender equality through normative change. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country with one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the Asia-Pacific region, Oky is more than an initiative—it’s a movement towards greater autonomy and empowerment for girls. “I want to share the information in the Oky PNG app with girls living in my settlement. There are girls who don’t have access to phones, but I can support them,” says 16-year-old Rachel.

*Real-time portfolio updates are available on the UNICEF Venture Fund’s website.

“Investing in Innovation and Frontier Technology” Programme supported by Takeda

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