Ted Hisokawa
22 Sep 2024 11:59
Circle’s ‘Unlocking Impact’ pitch competition series returns to the UN Summit, showcasing innovative projects that aim to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Today marks a significant event as Circle launches the fourth in its series of ‘Unlocking Impact’ pitch competitions at the UN Headquarters’ SDG Media Zone. The initiative coincides with the UN Future Summit and aims to highlight innovative solutions that leverage Circle’s technology to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to circle.com.
Expanding global influence
Debuting in New York in 2023, the Unlocking Impact series has evolved into an international event that brings together humanitarian, corporate, and technology sectors. The goal is to leverage the digital dollar and open blockchain networks to help vulnerable populations and foster the development of new applications and services that provide benefits that traditional financial services cannot.
Previous winners like Ensuro and Rahat have already made significant progress. Ensuro uses blockchain and smart contracts to make insurance more efficient and inclusive, while Rahat uses similar technology to deliver fast and accurate payments directly to recipients’ mobile phones. Together, they have reached nearly 200,000 people, providing essential services to smallholder farmers, climate disaster victims, and other at-risk groups.
Today’s Competitors
There are several promising projects in the current competition.
- Atlas: ATLANTE focuses on financial inclusion in frontier markets, providing microcredit to entrepreneurs in the Kakuma refugee camp, fostering sustainable economic development and transforming a region that relies on aid.
- Eterisk Impact BV: The project leverages blockchain to create accessible, transparent, and efficient insurance solutions to address global challenges such as climate risk and financial exclusion.
- area: Kshetra’s ImpactCred Marketplace connects social enterprises with impact investors to facilitate bridge financing and working capital lending, accelerating innovation toward the UN SDGs.
- one: Moja, a Techstars alumnus, provides a platform for group savings, lending, and investing using USDC. The company operates out of Cambridge, USA, Nairobi, Kenya, and London.
The Jury
The competition is judged by a distinguished panel including:
- Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Global Policy Officer at Circle
- Taha Bawa, Co-Founder and CEO, Goodwall
- Timothy Rann, MercyCorps Managing Partner
- Erica Moret, Director of the United Nations Secretariat and International Organizations, Microsoft
- Amina Tirana, Professor of Public Service, New York University
- Bernhard Kowatsch, Innovation Accelerator Director, UN World Food Programme
- Ruben Galindo Steckel, CEO of Airtm
- Ana Rold, CEO, Diplomatic Courier
- Ranuak Mittal, Director, World Bank Group Technology Innovation Institute
The next Unlocking Impact pitch competition is scheduled for October 26, 2024 in Washington, DC, during the World Bank Annual Meetings.
Image source: Shutterstock