The FREE STEM Fund aims to narrow the gender gap in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
The FREE STEM Fund has received foundational support from Optiver Foundation.
Vision
Girls, women, transgender and non-binary people are widely represented in, and empowered to thrive in and advance the STEM sector.
MISSION
The FREE STEM Fund will invest in initiatives that use intersectional approaches to empower girls, women, transgender and non-binary people as changemakers in the STEM sector.
Optiver Foundation is committed to bringing greater diversity to the technology and finance industries around the world. Optiver Foundation helped launch the FREE STEM Fund to create equal opportunity through greater access to STEM education.
FREE STEM leverages shared governance and participatory mechanisms to design a fund that is tailored to the needs and gaps within the STEM sector. We also leverage grassroots STEM expertise and voices by investing in projects that prioritise girls', women's and other underrepresented groups' access to STEM opportunities.
The Fund uses holistic approaches that take into account their enabling environment, with the objective of narrowing the gender STEM gap and increasing the number of women, transgender and non-binary role models and STEM changemakers.
Free stem Fund
recipients
The FREE STEM Fund received over 1000 applications in the 2023 and 2024 rounds of funding. We have funded 27 of those organisations in 2023 and 34 of those organisations in 2024.
Cameroon
2026
STEM Role Models & Networks
Action For Youth and Environment
Sahel Feminist AI & AgriTech Labs empowers 180 displaced and crisis-affected young women in Far North Cameroon
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Cameroon
2026
STEM Role Models & Networks
Words That Count
Words That Count amplifies the voices of African women in STEM by bridging the gap between education, research, and leadership.
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Cameroon
2026
Advocacy & Awareness
Freedom of Coming Out
This project empowers youth in rural Rwanda by providing essential training in digital mapping, coding, and climate-tech.
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Location
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Location
Heading 4
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Add a Title
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Cameroon
STEM Role Models & Networks
Action For Youth and Environment
Sahel Feminist AI & AgriTech Labs empowers 180 displaced and crisis-affected young women in Far North Cameroon
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
Cameroon
STEM Role Models & Networks
Words That Count
Words That Count amplifies the voices of African women in STEM by bridging the gap between education, research, and leadership.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
Cameroon
Advocacy & Awareness
Freedom of Coming Out
This project empowers youth in rural Rwanda by providing essential training in digital mapping, coding, and climate-tech.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
