A city at first lightAI-generated image
Six organisations, each with its own way of advancing.
The members share one set of commitments, but none is a copy of another. Each grows from its region's history, languages and habits of work, and each is establishing its own Foundation and Ventures company.
Africa and the diaspora
Kuumba
Kuumba · Africa Inventions
Swahili for “creativity”
A continent of creators, from the Stone Age to artificial intelligence.
Kuumba starts from a simple fact: the continent where the first stone tools were made is a continent of creators, from the Stone Age to the age of artificial intelligence. It serves all 54 countries and the diaspora at once and, as the flagship member, it is where the network's methods are first tested and proven.
How it advances
A timeline of inventions born in Africa shows young people that they inherit a tradition of making, not of waiting.
Raw materials should leave the continent as finished products, with the value and the jobs kept at home.
Regional patent routes through OAPI and ARIPO, alongside national offices, let one plan cover many markets.
Miss and Mister Creator of the Year celebrate inventors with the attention usually reserved for pageants.
- Countries served
- All 54 African countries, and the diaspora
- Languages
- English · Français · Português
- Regional prize
- Africa Inventions Prize
- Status
- Live: accepting submissions
- Structure
- Kuumba: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
- Domain
- africainventions.org
Latin America & the Caribbean
Adelante
Adelante · Inventors Unleashed Latin America & Caribbean
Spanish for “forward”
Collective ingenuity: minga, mutirão and konbit, cooperatives, and “Hecho aquí”, made here.
Adelante brings the region's tradition of collective work to invention. Neighbours who join forces to raise a house or bring in a harvest call it minga in the Andes, mutirão in Brazil and konbit in Haiti. Adelante applies the same principle: no one invents alone, and what is built together is owned together.
How it advances
Minga Labs bring inventors, students, technicians and neighbours together to build and test prototypes side by side.
Invention cooperatives let inventors share tools, costs and ownership under clear, written rules.
Laboratories and students are connected with the firms and cooperatives able to manufacture what they invent.
The region's food, minerals and forests should become finished products at home, so that the value and the jobs stay in the region.
- Countries served
- 33 countries, from Mexico to Chile and across the Caribbean, and the diaspora
- Languages
- Español · Português · Français · English
- Regional prize
- Premio Adelante
- Status
- In preparation: register your interest now
- Structure
- Adelante: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
South Asia
Aage
Aage · Inventors Unleashed South Asia
Hindi and Urdu for “ahead”
Frugal ingenuity, raised to world-class quality and scale.
South Asia has a long tradition of doing more with less: the repair that keeps a machine running, the clever fix that serves a whole village. Aage takes that resourcefulness seriously and turns it into rigorous, tested and certified products that can serve hundreds of millions of people.
How it advances
Low cost is not a compromise but a design requirement, and often the hardest one to meet.
An ingenious fix becomes a product only once it is tested, safe and certified, with engineers and standards bodies involved from the start.
Grassroots innovators are paired with university laboratories, so that each learns from the other.
From the first sketch, every invention is asked one question: could it serve a hundred million people?
- Countries served
- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and the diaspora
- Languages
- हिन्दी · বাংলা · اردو · English
- Regional prize
- Aage Award
- Status
- In preparation: register your interest now
- Structure
- Aage: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
Southeast Asia
Maju
Maju · Inventors Unleashed Southeast Asia
Indonesian and Malay for “advance”
Gotong royong and bayanihan: advancing together, through ports and supply chains.
Maju advances through mutual cooperation: gotong royong in Indonesia and Malaysia, bayanihan in the Philippines, the conviction that a community can lift what no single household could carry. Southeast Asia has long prospered as a maritime, trading and manufacturing region, and its inventors can advance through the same ports, suppliers and cross-border factories.
How it advances
Cross-border teams are encouraged, and every contributor is credited, from the engineer to the fisher who first described the problem.
Regional manufacturers join at prototype stage, so that inventions are designed to be made.
A submission from a remote island receives the same review and support as one from a capital city.
Where an invention needs several markets, filings are planned across member states as one strategy, drawing on ASPEC cooperation between patent offices.
- Countries served
- Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam, and the diaspora
- Languages
- Bahasa Indonesia · Tiếng Việt · Filipino · English
- Regional prize
- Maju Prize
- Status
- In preparation: register your interest now
- Structure
- Maju: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
Central Asia & the Caucasus
Alga
Alga · Inventors Unleashed Central Asia & Caucasus
Kazakh for “forward”
Crossroads thinking: from science to industry, along the corridors between Asia and Europe.
For centuries, the caravan routes now known as the Silk Road carried goods, knowledge and inventions between Asia and Europe through this region. Alga builds on that heritage of exchange and on a strong tradition of mathematics, science and engineering education, with one conviction: the region advances fastest when science is linked to industry and trade corridors connect its inventors to the world.
How it advances
Inventors, mentors and buyers are connected across borders and languages, as the caravans once connected markets.
Exceptional mathematicians, scientists and engineers are given a clear path from the classroom to the patent office.
Every promising invention is paired early with a partner able to produce it.
Inventions are designed from the outset for the trade routes linking Asia and Europe, and for the buyers, carriers and ports along them.
- Countries served
- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Mongolia, and the diaspora
- Languages
- Русский · Қазақша · Oʻzbekcha · English
- Regional prize
- Alga Prize
- Status
- In preparation: register your interest now
- Structure
- Alga: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
Pacific Islands
Vaka
Vaka · Inventors Unleashed Pacific Islands
The voyaging canoe, in several Polynesian languages
Wayfinding, community consent and remote-first support from island to island.
For thousands of years, Pacific navigators crossed the largest ocean on Earth without instruments, reading the stars, the swells, the winds and the flight of birds. Vaka brings that way of thinking to invention: know where you are going, read the conditions honestly, travel together and take care of what you hand on.
How it advances
Set a clear destination, read the conditions honestly and adjust course as you learn. Every invention receives a charted route.
Traditional knowledge is used only with the community's prior informed consent and fair benefit-sharing.
Land and ocean are held in trust for future generations; an invention is judged by what it leaves behind as well as by what it earns.
Across vast distances, support travels by phone, WhatsApp, SMS and radio, with mentors online and kits shipped to the islands.
- Countries served
- 22 island countries and territories across Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and the diaspora
- Languages
- Français · Tok Pisin · English
- Regional prize
- Vaka Prize
- Status
- In preparation: register your interest now
- Structure
- Vaka: Foundation (nonprofit) and Ventures company, being established
Every invention began with a question.
How do we solve a problem that keeps returning in our lives or in our communities? How do we improve a solution that exists but still falls short? Most of history's great inventions began there.
- 01Ask
What problem could you solve today? Which existing invention or solution could you make better, cheaper, safer or easier to use?
- 02Write it down
Set out the problem and your idea on paper, with a sketch if you can. Date it and keep it. A written idea can be tested, improved and protected.
- 03Contact us
When you believe you have the solution, or even part of it, submit it through the member for your region. We will help you with the rest.
Three questions to start your notebook
- What wastes time, money or energy in your home, farm, school or business every week?
- What tool or service almost works, but fails the people who need it most?
- What problem do people around you simply accept because no one has fixed it?
No one will build our future for us.
No one else will solve our problems, transform our raw materials, or invent and create in our place. The time has come to stop waiting for others and to act, starting today.
- Solve a problem.
- Propose a solution.
- Build what comes next.
Every problem we solve brings us closer to well-being and a better future for the generations that follow.