We invested £50,000, alongside other corporates, in an initiative led by Big Issue Invest in partnership with the Nominet Trust – the Tech for Good challenge. This challenge seeks to support early stage ventures which use digital technology in an innovative way to address the social problems of the moment and to transform the lives of young people. After an application and mentoring stage, eleven enterprises were chosen to receive the investment as well as ongoing support.

The successful ventures were those deemed to have the most profound effect on the futures of young people, and which engage with young people to solve social issues they face. The majority of the winning applications were those addressing issues of employment and training for those Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEETs), as well as the wider wellbeing problems this causes.

Additionally, the challenge addressed the problem of a lack of funding for early stage ventures in their growth stage. Our funding supports one of the successful enterprises in its growth stages.