CAPE TOWN, South Africa (February 24, 2026) – Today, Tiko was announced as one of the newest grantees of The Audacious Project, the collaborative funding platform within TED. This selection recognises Tiko’s bold vision addressing some of humanity’s biggest challenges through their mission to protect the most vulnerable African girls from the Triple Threat of unintended pregnancy, HIV and sexual violence.
More Power and Choice For African Girls
“Across Africa, millions of girls face the ‘Triple Threat’ of unintended pregnancy, HIV, and sexual violence. They are navigating health systems that are complicated and not always responsive to their needs, and they need our timely support now more than ever. The Audacious Project’s recognition proves the Tiko model is a scalable blueprint to change this,” said Serah Malaba, Co-CEO of Tiko.
“This catalytic investment is the critical first step, it provides the foundation to unite philanthropy and government co-financing to meet a massive need with the radical urgency the most vulnerable girls deserve. We are moving fast, because for every girl whose future is on the line, she simply cannot wait. In the next five years, this means 3.5 million girls who will stay in school, will not be young mothers or child brides, they will go on to have decent work and meaningful pay and collectively we will secure a brighter future for Africa’s girls.”
“The Audacious Project exists to back ideas that have the courage to meet humanity’s toughest problems head-on. Supporting Tiko is a declaration of what is possible when we center the agency of girls,” said Anna Verghese, executive director of The Audacious Project. “By unlocking access to life-saving health services across Africa, Tiko isn’t just solving a crisis; they are charting a path toward a future where every girl is the architect of her own life. This is the bold shift that girls in Africa need, right now.”
As a 2025 grantee of The Audacious Project, Tiko is scaling a bold vision for girls’ health and wellbeing. By 2030, Tiko will reach 3.5 million of the most vulnerable girls annually across six countries where the organization already has a presence – Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Burkina Faso. By fully integrating sexual violence services into the organization’s family planning and HIV offerings, Tiko is building a holistic ecosystem to address the Triple Threat at scale.
This milestone marks a critical juncture for girls’ care, signalling a global shift toward high-trust, girl-centred investment. Since 2014, Tiko has evolved thanks to foundational partners, their strategic capital and unwavering belief allowed Tiko to refine, and prove a model that works across Africa to optimise girl-centred impact.
As cornerstone partners since 2017, The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) fuelled Tiko’s evolution from a Kenyan pilot into a girl-centric service leader spanning Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa. By innovating across health, education, and livelihoods, and helping Tiko pioneer the first Development Impact Bonds for girls’ health, CIFF’s support has helped Tiko turn innovation into proven results. The partnership has supported Tiko to evolve, and embed the focus on the Triple Threat, and through this, the organization has built a proven ecosystem model that ensures girls not only know where to go, but can access services without fear, shame or financial hardship — empowering them to take charge of their health and futures.
Faustina Fynn-Nyame, Executive Director, Africa for The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) said on the announcement, “Investing in African girls is not just a moral duty – it’s the smartest choice we can make. When girls are educated, healthy, and economically empowered, entire communities benefit. Tiko works because it centres the individual girl and addresses her needs as she experiences them, not in siloes but as interconnected. We are proud to continue our momentum with Tiko, doubling down on proven innovations that break down barriers and give every girl in Africa the fundamental power to choose her own path and own her destiny.”
When the Elton John AIDS Foundation invested in Tiko in 2021, it marked a turning point. Their support enabled the integration of HIV and mental health services into Tiko’s sexual and reproductive health model, brought public health facilities into Tiko’s network and connected Tiko with co-funders who catalysed expansion into new countries. Together, they helped transform a bold vision into a proven, multi-country model that has reached hundreds of thousands of young people with integrated, life-changing care.
Elton John, Founder, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, said: “Finding the most promising ideas in the fight against HIV and committing to them early, is at the heart of everything the Elton John AIDS Foundation does. When we first partnered with Tiko in 2021 and saw their work firsthand in South Africa, we knew we were backing something special. Their ambition was clear, their mission urgent, and their commitment to young people unwavering. Together, we helped them expand into mental health, integrate with public health facilities, and reach over 450,000 girls across Kenya, South Africa and Uganda with treatment and care. With this new funding from The Audacious Project, Tiko can reach further than ever before and transform what’s possible for a generation across sub-Saharan Africa.”
At the end of last year, the Audacious donor community committed a total of $1.03 billion to the new cohort of grantees, the largest total raised to date and a significant infusion of capital into visionary ideas to shift systems and sectors. To learn more about each grantee and their Audacious idea, please visit www.audaciousproject.org.
The urgency to support girls has never been greater. This effort requires a multistakeholder and multisectoral approach. Tiko invites partners to sustain the momentum by co-implementing this bold new blueprint for adolescent health — one that strengthens public systems, harnesses private providers to fill in critical gaps, builds local capacity and lays the foundation for governments to sustainably prioritize the health and futures of girls in Africa.
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ABOUT TIKO
Tiko strengthens the resilience of girls across Africa by protecting them from the “Triple Threat” – unintended pregnancy, HIV, and sexual violence – by removing barriers to care: stigma, low awareness, cost, and system fragmentation. We build and strengthen local ecosystems connecting girls to integrated health services at no cost through community-driven models of care powered by a technology platform. By removing barriers and acting as their companion, Tiko supports girls so they can take charge of their health and futures.
ABOUT THE AUDACIOUS PROJECT
Launched in 2018, The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative dedicated to supporting bold ideas with the potential to change the world. Housed at TED and powered by the belief that ideas change everything, Audacious leverages a global network of visionary social entrepreneurs and funders to support bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. Audacious is issue-agnostic and supports grantees to balance audacity and achievability for lasting, systemic impact. Since 2018, Audacious has helped to catalyze more than $7 billion for 70 projects, demonstrating what’s possible when we dream bigger and act together. The funding community includes respected donors and philanthropists including ELMA Philanthropies, Emerson Collective, MacKenzie Scott, Pivotal Ventures, Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin, Skoll Foundation, Valhalla Foundation and more.
CONTACT: media@tiko.org