Today, the next installment in Circle’s Unlocking Impact pitch competition series will take place at the SDG Media Zone inside the UN Headquarters. We are incredibly excited to see the next wave of entrepreneurs present their visionary solutions for using Circle’s technology to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This marks the fourth iteration of Unlocking Impact, which debuted in New York in 2023. Over the last year, Unlocking Impact has grown into an international road show that regularly brings together the humanitarian, corporate and tech sectors to create and evaluate new apps and services that use digital dollars and open blockchain networks to improve the lives of vulnerable populations in ways that traditional finance cannot.
Past winners include Ensuro, an innovative insurance provider that uses blockchain and smart contracts to make insurance more capital efficient and more inclusive, and Rahat, which uses blockchain technology with smart contracts for fast, accurate aid delivery and payouts directly to beneficiaries’ phones.
Together, Ensuro and Rahat have already reached nearly 200,000 people in areas where traditional financial services are scarce. They provide critical coverage for small farmers, people suffering from climate disasters, and other at-risk groups.
Today’s competitors include:
- ATLANTE enables communities in frontier markets to break the cycle of financial exclusion by providing swift, affordable microloans that drive sustainable economic development. Through their platform, entrepreneurs in the Kakuma refugee camp can access vital resources to grow businesses, create jobs, and improve livelihoods; transforming aid-dependent regions into thriving, self-sustaining environments with long-lasting social and economic impact.
- Etherisc Impact B.V. is leveraging blockchain to develop solutions aimed at making insurance more accessible, transparent and efficient to address global challenges like climate risk and financial exclusion. By harnessing decentralized technologies, Etherisc Impact B.V. creates more cost-effective, automated insurance models that benefit underserved populations and emerging markets.
- Kshetra designs products to boost innovation towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ImpactCred is Kshetra’s fintech marketplace designed to match social enterprises with impact investors and funds to facilitate bridge financing and working capital loans.
- Moja is bringing solutions to the almost half billion people saving together in groups worldwide and the 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Its flagship product is an application to enable people to save, send, borrow and invest together, in groups, using USDC. Moja is a Techstars alumnus (2023); the company is based in Cambridge, USA, with presence in Nairobi, Kenya, and London.
Judges include:
- Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy, Circle
- Taha Bawa, Co-founder and CEO, Goodwall
- Timothy Rann, Managing Partner, MercyCorps
- Erica Moret, Director, United Nations Affairs & International Organisations, Microsoft
- Amina Tirana, Professor of Public Service, New York University
- Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of the Innovation Accelerator, UN World Food Programme
- Ruben Galindo Steckel, CEO, Airtm
- Ana Rold, CEO, Diplomatic Courier
- Ranuak Mittal, Director, Technology and Innovation Lab, World Bank Group
Good luck to the competitors, and stay tuned for an event recap with winner profiles and more. The next Unlocking Impact pitch competition will take place October 26 in Washington, DC during the 2024 Annual Meetings of the World Bank.
