Startup will Make a Difference in the Learning of 1,700 Boys and Girls in Chile After Winning the ChildTech Challenge - FEMSA
Press Release

Startup will Make a Difference in the Learning of 1,700 Boys and Girls in Chile After Winning the ChildTech Challenge

FEMSA

  • Afinidata obtained $ 30,000 after winning the ChildTech Challenge, to implement an innovation project that will strengthen the comprehensive education of boys and girls in Chile alongside Niños Primero Foundation.

 Santiago de Chile, Chile. October 25, 2021 – Early childhood is one of the fundamental stages of human development. According to Unicef (2011), there is a lot of evidence on the importance of pregnancy and the first three years of life, which will have consequences for both individual development and that of society. For this reason, to achieve optimal development it is necessary to intervene in various aspects such as health, protection and education, including in this last point aspects that are less talked about: such as early stimulation, socio-emotional and neurocognitive development, among other things.

“We have always been certain that comprehensive education is essential for the development of people, but today we also know that in the long term it is also beneficial both economically and socially. That is why at Impactus Ventures we launched the ChildTech Challenge, a contest that brought together more than 100 startups worldwide and that we hope will continue to promote childtech in the region, because we believe that it is the way for all children and adolescents to have better opportunities”, said Ignacia Donoso, Director of Projects at Impactus Ventures.

The ChildTech Challenge aims to stimulate innovation and impact the development of children in Latin America. In this first version, the winner in the ‘Early Childhood Education’ Category was Afinidata, a social startup that offers families early stimulation activities to help the development of their children. In addition to winning a prize of $ 30,000, they will be able to implement a project in partnership with the Niños Primero Foundation, which will impact 1,700 boys and girls.

“We are honored and excited about what is to come. It will be a great opportunity to implement Afinidata in Chile alongside Impactus Ventures and Niños Primero Foundation. It is our dream at Afinidata to ensure that each child reaches their full potential before the age of seven. Serving the children of Chile is the ideal opportunity to continue making this dream a reality”, said Andreana Castellanos, CEO and founder of Afinidata.

This initiative was created by Impactus Ventures in alliance with FEMSA Foundation, Amalfi investment company, IDB Lab and + Global by Mustakis Foundation. Although in a first stage the solutions will be implemented in Chile, new calls are already being prepared for startups that want to work on innovation projects in other Latin American countries. These should be focused on education, protection and health, and should be focused on helping the continent’s children to have better opportunities, fulfill their dreams and reach their maximum potential.

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About FEMSA

FEMSA is a leading company that creates economic and social value through companies and institutions and seeks to be the best employer and neighbor of the communities where it has a presence. It participates in retail trade through FEMSA Comercio, which includes the Proximity Division and of which OXXO, a chain of small format stores, is a part of. It also has a Health Division that includes pharmacies and related activities as well as a Fuel Division that operates the service stations chain, OXXO Gas. In the beverage industry it operates Coca-Cola FEMSA, public bottler of Coca-Cola products; in the beer sector, as the second largest shareholder of HEINEKEN, one of the world’s leading beer companies with a presence in more than 70 countries. Additionally, through FEMSA’s Strategic Businesses Business Unit, it offers logistics services, point-of-sale refrigeration solutions and plastics solutions to FEMSA companies and external clients. FEMSA also participates in the cleaning products and consumables distribution industry in the United States. Through its Business Units, it employs approximately 320 thousand employees in 13 countries. FEMSA is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability MILA Pacific Alliance Index, the FTSE4Good Emerging Index and the Mexican Stock Exchange Sustainable IPC, among other indexes that evaluate its performance in sustainability.

About FEMSA Foundation

In FEMSA Foundation we create positive impacts on people and communities through social investment projects for sustainability. We work on the conservation and sustainable use of water, the impulse of early childhood and the dissemination of Latin American art and culture through the FEMSA Collection. For more information visit www.fundacionfemsa.org or follow us on Facebook (FundacionFEMSA) and Twitter (@FundacionFEMSA)

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Hanako Taniguchi
Press Relations at FEMSA
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Oscar F. Martínez
Press Relations at FEMSA
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