Work /
Innovation
We believe innovation can take many forms, including entrepreneurship, collaboration, technology, and drawing on both new knowledge and traditional wisdom. Our focus is on work that improves quality of life and brings greater inclusion, resilience and joy into everyday environments.
The AT4D team behind locally led assistive technology innovation, working to expand access and mobility across African cities. © AT4D
Locally sourced materials are part of efforts to build sustainable, bio-based construction supply chains in East Africa. © CPS for Gatsby Africa
Innovators 4Life Solutions and Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation collaborate to increase women’s incomes in Kenya, leveraging climate resilient water sanitation technology. © Million Lives Collective.
The Ushahidi team in Kenya, building AI-powered tools to amplify community voices at scale. © Ushahidi
Drones used by local teams to capture high-resolution imagery, enable community-led mapping of informal settlements at scale. © Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, joins Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team in drone mapping in Freetown, Sierra Leone. © Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
Urban
Futures
Cities are redefining how infrastructure, enterprise and civic life take shape. Innovators are strengthening civic participation, rethinking how cities serve their citizens, improving how communities are mapped, and reinventing building materials and techniques. They are creating ecosystems that enable this work and help locally grounded ideas gain traction and influence.
We back innovators who are testing, learning and iterating, giving them the space to refine their work and demonstrate what is possible in shaping the future of cities.
Innovation in action /
Our innovators include researchers, entrepreneurs, policy makers and community builders around the world, showing what urban futures look like in practice.
Expanding access through disability-led capital
Assistive Technologies for Disability Trust invests in early stage ventures building practical assistive technologies for urban markets in Africa.
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Rethinking how cities build
Gatsby Africa is advancing locally manufactured bio-based construction systems to expand access to safe, affordable housing in East Africa.
Learn morePutting informal communities on the map
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team trains local drone crews to generate high resolution urban data used for infrastructure and service planning in Sierra Leone.
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Designing cities around care
The City Hub and Network for Gender Equity is developing city-led Care Blocks that integrate childcare, disability access
and essential services into neighbourhood planning in Africa and Asia.
Backing grassroots innovators
Global Innovation Gathering provides flexible micro grants that help early stage innovators prototype and test solutions in real community settings globally.
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Scaling new solutions for African cities
The African Cities Innovation Fund backs partnerships between scale ready innovators and ecosystem actors to accelerate growth.
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Amplifying community voice with AI
Ushahidi’s Distant Voices platform uses AI to process multilingual community feedback and connect it to public decision making.
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