Femtech Ventures, a 2025–2030 initiative of the UNICEF Venture Fund, is choosing its second annual cohort of companies using frontier technology for the health, wellbeing, and sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
Startups building with AI, machine learning, blockchain or data science apply under one or more of three pillars: healthcare access, reproductive health, or mental wellbeing and safety. Companies keep working from their own base.
Benefits & funding
- Up to US$100,000, equity-free, paid in 2–3 tranches against an agreed work plan.
- 12 months of technical mentorship and access to UNICEF’s network, including its relationships with governments.
- Duties: the funded solution must carry an open-source licence by month six, and its real-time progress data is shared publicly.
- Selected companies sign an institutional contract with UNICEF.
Eligibility
- A private, for-profit company registered in a UNICEF programme country; individuals, NGOs and universities cannot apply.
- A working prototype that has produced initial results.
- The solution is open source, or the company will open-source it (OSI-approved licence for software, CERN/MIT/TAPR for hardware, CC-BY for content).
- Generates publicly accessible, measurable real-time data, or sets out a plan to.
- Women-led companies and founders under 35 are encouraged; neither is required.
- Programme countries (UNICEF list, updated August 2023): Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, North Macedonia, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, State of Palestine, Sudan, Suriname, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Can you apply?
Check who can apply
“UNICEF Venture Fund only seeks expressions of interest from companies that fulfill the minimum requirements. Companies must be registered as private for profit companies in a UNICEF Programme Country and and be Open Source/Willing to Open Source the solution seeking for funding.” Eligibility
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Application process
- 1Submit the online form in English by 11:59 PM CET, 4 November 2026.
- 2Link the solution’s code repository; this is mandatory, and a private repository must grant UNICEF access first.
- 3Add a pitch video of up to two minutes showing the real team and the product working, through a live demo or screen recording; AI-generated videos are not assessed.
- 4Shortlisted companies submit a full proposal (RFP); finalists then have a 30-minute online demo interview.
Program timeline
Application deadline (11:59 PM CET)
4 November 2026
Months 2–3 of the process
shortlisted companies submit proposals
Months 4–5
online demo interviews
Month 6
investees announced