The MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge (MIT IIC) Global Grand Prize Gala is happening soon in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 21. Twenty organizations from across the globe will vie to be one of the four winners receiving $250,000 USD each.

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These grand prize recipients will be selected from the categories: Financial Inclusion, Income Growth & Job Creation, Skills Development & Opportunity Matching, and Technology Access.

In the Asia region, the future of work competition took place last month at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Out of 400 entries received from Asia, twelve organizations were shortlisted to  convene at LCY Chemical’s new R&D Innovation Center. Back in 2018, Connected Women, a social impact tech startup that matches Filipino women remote workers to entrepreneurs and businesses around the world, was one of the regional finalists under the Skills Development & Opportunity matching who made it to Bangkok for the competition. For the 2019 MIT IIC, Ria San Gabriel of Connected Women joined as a judge at Kaohsiung.

Be inspired by this year’s game-changing future of work solutions and wish the four Asia regional winners good luck as they head to MIT with the other winners from Europe, Africa, Latin America and US & Canada.

Income Growth and Job Creation Asia Regional Winner:

NaTakallam
Twitter: @NaTakallam

delivers high-quality translation, language teaching, and cultural exchange programming to individuals, schools, universities, and organizations—all delivered by refugees through the gig economy.

Skills Devt & Opportunity Matching Asia Regional Winner:

Youth4Jobs
Twitter: @youth4jobs

provides youth with disabilities access to work opportunities while simultaneously co-creating pathways within companies for successful employment of these youth, at scale.

Technology Access Asia Regional Winner:

Innovision
Twitter: @InnovisionIndia

aims to leverage innovation to develop assistive technology solutions for the empowerment of persons with disability with a special focus on affordability.

Financial Inclusion Asia Regional Winner:

Asia Initiatives
Twitter: @Asiainit

SoCCs is an innovative community currency that people earn for doing social good, and redeem for education, skill empowerment, micro credit, enterprise funding and more.

Asia Regional Finalists:

Polly & Other Stories
Twitter: @pollyandstories

is Pakistan’s first online marketplace for handmade products sourced directly from homebound, rural women artisans across the country, increasing econmic prosperity for artisans.

Nest
Twitter: @buildanest

empowers home-based workers through a training-first regulatory program designed to increase market access and promote fair labor practices within a decentralized, informal workforce.

Helper4U
Twitter: @HelperForU

from India is a mobile, hyper-local employment exchange for uneducated and/or unskilled job seekers looking to work as domestic or office helpers.

Jobdoh
Twitter: @JOBDOH

enables workers to access rightfully earned wages anytime and anywhere, reducing workers’ reliance on high cost external financing to tackle short term cash crunch between paychecks.

SatSure
Twitter: @sat_sure

enables financial inclusion of farmers in developing countries by helping banks, policy-makers, and insurance companies develop a robust digital data infrastructure.

Stellaps
Twitter: @stellapps

is a full-stack-IoT company that drives digitization of the dairy sector to significantly enhance income, profitability, and yield/cow of farmers in emerging economies.

FIA Technology Services
Twitter: @FIA_Tech

provides a cashless digital economic system in rural India that helps ensure penetration of banking, spreading financial literacy, digitization of income, and access to digital payment solutions.

The Pacific Development Foundation
Twitter: @klickex

connects the 695,000 guardians of Polynesia – a remote area larger than Africa and Asia combined – with innovative financial services and education that enhances the lives and wealth of those that need it the most.

The Inclusive Innovation Challenge (IIC) is the flagship initiative of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE). MIT’s premier Future of Work prize awards over one million dollars in prizes each year to Inclusive Innovators: organizations around the world that are using technology to solve a grand challenge of our time — to create shared prosperity by reinventing the future of work. The Global Grand Prize Gala will be live streaming at the MIT IIC page this Thursday, November 21 beginning at 6:00 PM EST.