GSR Foundation announces grant to UNICEF
GSR Foundation announces grant to UNICEF
The GSR Foundation has announced a $250,000 grant to UNICEF’s Venture Fund
The GSR Foundation has today announced it will be supporting UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, by granting $250,000 to UNICEF’s Venture Fund to support the growth and development of the UNICEF CryptoFund.
The grant will support UNICEF to expand its capacity to leverage the use of digital currencies to support ecosystems of new frontier tech solutions exclusively located in emerging markets and invest in new use cases for blockchain for social good, with the potential to transform children’s lives.
Photo credit: Desola Lanre-Ologun
Announcing the grant, James Newell, Executive Director, GSR Foundation, said:
“We’re thrilled to be offering UNICEF a grant from our Empower funding programme. Cryptocurrency, and the underlying technology, is a nascent space and a key objective of the GSR Foundation is to work with excellent partners to cocreate use-cases that deliver social value. These will only be unlocked if barriers to inclusion are understood and addressed; traditional finance excludes too many people, our philanthropy is intended to build equality and equity with new tech.”
Sunita Grote, Senior Advisor Ventures, UNICEF Office of Innovation, said:
“Frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence and blockchain hold both promise and potential for addressing global challenges affecting the lives of children. Support from GSR enables us to push the boundaries of what is possible by exploring new use cases in contexts where they can deliver transformative change. And with our focus on startups in emerging economies we can help catalyze a network of expertise that can help make this vision a reality.”
The GSR Foundation is a new independent charity and grant maker that envisions a world in which no one is excluded from participating in, or benefitting from, the advancement of technology and its role in progress. Its work is funded by a donation from Founding Partner, GSR (gsr.io), a leading cryptocurrency market maker.
Since making its first investment in 2016, the Venture Fund’s investment-style funding targets early-stage, open-source technology solutions developed by startups from emerging markets, that address the most pressing challenges faced by children and young people, building a pipeline of vetted, digital public goods. Its portfolio comprises 147 solutions – 81 startups and 66 country office projects – across 86 emerging markets.
In October of 2019, UNICEF became the first organisation within the United Nations to accept, hold and disburse cryptocurrency for programmatic purposes.
Through its Crypto Fund, UNICEF receives, holds, and disburses cryptocurrency - bitcoin and ether. This ensures efficiency and transparency in transactions for both donors and investees.
To date, the Venture Fund, thorough its investees, has reached 41.5 million people, 10.9 million of which are children.
For more information visit unicefventurefund.org
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Notes to editors
About the GSR Foundation
The GSR Foundation, Registered Charity No. 1199228 (England & Wales) envisions a world in which no one is excluded from participating in, or benefitting from, the advancement of technology and its role in progress.
Our grant making is centred around bolstering the strength of the organisation delivering the charitable work. We believe a successful charity is an ecosystem wherein outstanding projects are delivered. Like private sector entities, the ecosystem must be resilient and well- resourced to make a real and lasting impact. Hence, we recognise that strengthening excellent ecosystems with our funding adds the most value. We see our philanthropy as setting the stage for impact rather than directly causing it.
The GSR Foundation was founded in 2022 by GSR, a leading cryptocurrency market maker, and operates as an independent charity.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.
The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) raises funds for UNICEF’s emergency and development work for children. We also promote and protect children’s rights in the UK and internationally. We are a UK charity, entirely funded by supporters.
United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK), Registered Charity No. 1072612 (England & Wales), SC043677 (Scotland).
About UNICEF Office of Innovation
UNICEF’s Office of Innovation is an agile global architecture aligning with diverse partners to boldly explore and scale innovative approaches and technologies to deliver equitable impact and opportunity for every child today, and an accelerated pace of change for generations to come.
Contact
GSR Foundation, foundation@gsr.io
Unicef UK Media Team, 0207 375 6030, media@unicef.org.uk
