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  • A woman leans against a railing, gazing at the city skyline in the background.

    Standard Chartered Foundation

    Driving impact and prosperity for under-served young people.

Standard Chartered Foundation was created to tackle inequality. We seek to drive impact and prosperity for under-served young people globally.

We believe that bringing people together is the best way to find innovative, forward-thinking solutions that address systemic barriers to employability and entrepreneurship.

Our unique network gives us the power to connect businesses, organisations and individuals to deliver meaningful impact. So far, we’ve helped enable over 100,000 jobs, over half of them for women. But we know there’s more to do.

Our ambition is to use the full potential of our global network to build partnerships and ecosystems that can create change at scale, making a difference for under-served young people around the world, and helping to strengthen the foundations of growth and stability.

The critical need to give young people the opportunity to reach their potential drives what we do, and how we do it.
Profile
Tracey McDermott, CBE
Chair, Standard Chartered Foundation Board of Trustees

Our approach

  • women with a microphone

    Invest

    We invest in under-served young people to unlock growth.

  • A woman pulls a fishing net out of the water

    Innovate

    We innovate through philanthropy to address systemic barriers to employability and entrepreneurship.

  • Two men analyze a large screen displaying various graphs and charts

    Build

    We build transformative partnerships and ecosystems to deliver and scale impact.

Impact stories

Zulal - funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation

From startup to Silicon Valley 

Zülal is a tech entrepreneur. We helped her scale a revolutionary app that supports people with visual impairments see in real-time.

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Maryanne - funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation

From overlooked to unstoppable

Maryanne struggled to access quality job opportunities. We helped open doors to training and pathways that set her on a promising career path.

Read full story

Standard Chartered Foundation is a registered UK charity

Registered with UK Companies House (Company number 11968592 ) and the Charity Commission of England and Wales (Charity number 1184946)

Fundraising regulator

Explore more

Zulal - funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation

The entrepreneur revolutionising AI tech to help her see

“I was born with limited sight, so I first learned how to ‘see’ on the computer screen”, says Zülal, who would magnify images to help her recognise colours, objects, and even her parents’ faces.

“When I lost my vision completely at 10, I asked myself if there was any way to see with technology once again.”

After receiving support from an entrepreneurship programme funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation, Future Lab, Zülal’s dream of building a synthetic vision system is now a reality.

Seeing the world through a virtual lens

According to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, 295 million people globally live with moderate to severe visual impairment. Keenly aware of this challenge, Zülal founded FROM YOUR EYES (FYE) in Istanbul in 2022.

Using AI, FYE functions like a pair of virtual glasses that allows users with limited biological vision to ‘see’ in real-time.

With FYE Mobile, users from more than 40 countries can upload photos, videos and visual documents to an app. An AI assistant instantly processes the information they’ve shared to provide an audio description of what’s happening.
 
There’s also FYE Vehicle Vision, which takes images inside and outside cars to aid passengers and ensure their safety.

An inspiring journey

Taking her business to the next level was part of an already impressive journey for Zülal, a Microsoft-trained technology ambassador and one of Google’s Women Tech Makers.

Launching FYE after managing 59 markets at a Microsoft partner company, Zülal realised she needed to boost investment and growth. So, she applied for mentoring support from the Future Lab project, delivered by our strategic partner Youth Business International (YBI).

Enter Future Lab

Future Lab equipped female entrepreneurs and other under-served business owners in Turkey with the skills, resources, mentorship and networking opportunities needed to break through barriers and achieve success.

“We talked a lot about our expectations because the start-up ecosystem is quite harsh”, explains Zülal, “especially for young entrepreneurs”.

With the support of her mentors, she was able to demonstrate her business credentials and integrity to potential investors to secure additional funding. She also received practical advice on licensing her product application programming interface (API) and user experience and user interface changes.

A bright future


“This experience has really helped me develop my own leadership skills”, explains Zülal, “I also feel more comfortable sharing my own experiences. Being part of a community of entrepreneurs means I don’t feel alone.”

After establishing a parent company – NeuroVision AI Tech – in Silicon Valley, Zülal’s company is now headquartered there and she’s aiming to double her workforce, charging towards her dream of creating the most advanced, customisable AI ‘vision’ for use across all industries – from airports and eCommerce platforms through cameras and beyond.

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Maryanne - funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation

Turning Maryanne’s potential into success

For years Maryanne faced barriers to employment. Her severe speech impediment meant she was often overlooked for training and job opportunities. That changed after she joined an IT Academy in Nairobi, funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation and delivered by our strategic partner Sightsavers. 

During the game-changing programme, Maryanne developed her IT skills on top of joining the Accenture Skills training run by Sightsavers, which involved practical, technical and communication skills.

CV writing training and IT skills widened Maryanne’s employment prospects, while networking events that exposed her to different companies boosted her confidence.

“The Academy empowered me socially and economically. I gained skills and confidence, as well as friends and mentors whose support continues to be vital in my career,” said Maryanne when commenting on her experience in the programme.

Boosted confidence

Putting her new-found confidence to use, Maryanne built on the technical skills she developed to create an app that helps people with hearing impairments detect emergency sounds, going on to showcase her app through a sign language interpreter at an innovation event at the United States International University-Africa.

Impressed with her progress, Maryanne received funding for the app from a non-profit in Germany, which took her to Germany and South Africa to network and develop her idea.

The next move

Maryanne then succeeded in getting a quality job at United Disabled Persons of Kenya, working for an award-winning platform that helps people with disabilities access disability-related information, self-help peer communities and digital services.

Keen to continue passing forward her new skills, she’s also developing an app to help people with hearing impairments detect emergency sounds.

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