Impactus Ventures announced that the ChildTech Challenge is back for a second edition. This competition will reward four winning startups in Colombia and Mexico that are using innovative technology to impact the development of children and youth.
The winning startups will receive USD$30,000 each and the support of United Way, Impactus Ventures, and partners to implement the initiative in Mexico and/or Colombia. This challenge is also supported by FEMSA Foundation, Mustakis Foundation +Global initiative, and the Amalfi Sociedad de Inversiones. The second stage of applications is already open and the process ends on May 31st.
Impactus Ventures is looking for technology-based startups that offer solutions for the development of girls, boys, and young people around the world and want to expand or scale their business in Mexico and/or Colombia. Also, startups that apply must have verifiable sales on their business model, an egalitarian human capital structure, and have to be in a scaling stage.
This edition of the ChildTech Challenge will focus on the following:
- Social-emotional skills training for children and mental health support for children between 0 and 6 years of age and/or
- Recovery and acceleration of learning and/or reduction of educational gaps in children and young people between 7 and 18 years of age
Winners of the ChildTech Challenge 2021
Afinidata
Afinidata is a Guatemala-based startup that uses Artificial Intelligence to provide instantaneous access to quality early childhood education resources. Its mission is to give every child in the world the opportunity to reach their full potential and create their own future.
Lack of stimulation and health problems in early childhood are significant threats to the long-term well-being of children in low-to-middle income communities. Afinidata aims to change children’s trajectory with a sustainable, personalized and scalable solution.
Afinidata started as an in-person workshop for families in Guatemala, and now equips caregivers with a virtual assistant that guides them with personalized educational content to enhance infant development. Since its launch in 2019, this tool has proven to be an important means of support for more than 100,000 children in more than six countries.
Brave Up
Brave Up is a Chile-based startup that offers a web platform designed to work with school coexistence. The platform detects possible cases of bullying through sociograms and diagnostic surveys. It uses an algorithm to process the information and deliver results in real time.
School employees that are in charge of the coexistence in the institution are the main users of the platform. Students, families and teachers also participate in it. Other resources that Brave Up offers are designed to work directly in classrooms, and its reporting channel supports early detection of problems affecting coexistence in the school.
The startup currently works with 48 schools in Chile, and impacts over 20,000 students. Also, the platform has around 70,000 users combined in Chile, United States, Colombia and Mexico.
More information about the ChildTech Challenge and applications: https://impactus.ventures/es/desafio/
