Meet the eight ventures joining the first AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize

Eight ventures have been selected for the inaugural AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize — a new programme focused specifically on how AI and emerging technology can widen access to opportunity and improve social mobility for young people across the UK.

26 August 2026, London, UK

Today, we are introducing the first cohort of the AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize, bringing together eight ventures developing technology to address barriers across education, skills, careers and employment.

Delivered by EY Foundation and Social Tech Trust, in partnership with the Social Mobility Commission, and supported by Microsoft, HSF Kramer, EY, Fieldfisher and LinkedIn, the Challenge Prize brings a specific social mobility lens to the rapid development of AI.

AI is already reshaping how people learn, find information, develop skills, navigate careers and access work. But the opportunities created by these technologies will not necessarily be distributed equally. The Challenge Prize was created to explore a critical question: how can we ensure that AI expands opportunity for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, rather than reinforcing the barriers they already face?

Following a competitive application and selection process, eight early-stage ventures have been selected for the inaugural cohort. Their solutions span different stages of a young person’s journey — from learning and skills development to financial capability, professional networks, career navigation and pathways into employment.

Meet the 2026 cohort

AVA - Founder: Dr Yusuf Ben-Tarifite

An AI-powered platform helping young people discover career pathways and navigate opportunities for education, skills and employment.

Breakthrough - CEO: Sobanan Narenthiran

A social enterprise helping young people excluded from the digital economy build applied AI and digital skills, access one-to-one coaching and connect with employers who are hiring.

Sobanan Narenthiran, CEO of Breakthrough, said: “Most work on AI and social mobility stops at getting young people ready. We want to finish the journey, so that someone who has been in prison, in care, or out of work for years ends up thriving in this economy rather than watching it from the outside. The Challenge Prize gives us three months alongside people who have built and funded ventures at scale. What we want to leave with is a model that reaches thousands of young people rather than hundreds, and the evidence to show it holds.”

FIIT Learning - Founder: Dionne Jude

An AI-powered learning platform providing personalised education and wellbeing support that adapts to each learner’s needs, pace and circumstances.

Dionne Jude, Founder of FIIT Learning, said: “I’m excited to be part of the AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize because of what it could enable for young people who are out of school or struggling to attend. Too many risk falling behind or becoming disconnected from education altogether. The programme can help FIIT Learning strengthen our approach, demonstrate impact and reach more young people with flexible, personalised learning.”

HopeHub - Founder: Amani Simpson

A 24/7 digital youth-support platform featuring Jords, an AI goal coach that helps young people achieve their goals, sustain inspiration and access local opportunities.

Louno Space - Founder: Mirko Viviano

A space-education platform combining hands-on activities with Nova, an AI learning companion offering personalised STEM missions to children aged 7–11, particularly in underserved communities.

Mirko Viviano, Founder of Louno Space, said: “Space has a unique power to make children look up and ask bigger questions about what they could become. At Louno Space we have seen that spark in classrooms across the UK, and the Challenge Prize helps us carry it much further. With the programme’s support, we can grow Nova, our AI learning companion, responsibly and thoughtfully, and bring personalised, hands-on STEM learning to many more children in the communities that need it most, so every child’s curiosity gets the chance to take them somewhere extraordinary.”

MyPocketSkill - Founders: Matthew Harker and Zara Ransley

An AI-enabled platform connecting young people with paid opportunities while providing personalised financial education, skills development and support through PokitAI.

The MyPocketSkill team said: “We believe in inclusive AI as an engine for social mobility, not a system of segregation that rewards only those who already have the most. Participating in this programme will grant us greater visibility and momentum, accelerating our efforts to prove that AI can redistribute opportunity.”

Tangent - Founder: Gary Izunwa

An AI-native talent network making professional connections, personalised career support and pathways into employment accessible to everyone.

Ultra Education - Founder: Julian Hall

An AI-powered entrepreneurship mentor providing personalised, age-appropriate guidance to help young people build confidence, develop ideas and take practical steps towards education and employment.

Julian Hall, Founder of Ultra Education, said: “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Being selected for the AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize is an exciting opportunity to accelerate Abby from an early working product into something that can reach thousands more young people — bringing the future of opportunity closer to them. The programme will help us strengthen the evidence, technology and commercial model while keeping young people, safeguarding and social mobility at the centre of how we scale.”

Putting social mobility at the heart of AI innovation

What makes the Challenge Prize distinctive is its starting point. Rather than asking simply what AI can do, the programme asks who benefits from it, who can access it, and whether it can help dismantle rather than reproduce existing barriers to opportunity.

The eight ventures approach that challenge from different directions. They are working across career navigation, digital skills, personalised education, youth support, STEM learning, financial capability, professional networks and entrepreneurship. Together, they demonstrate that social mobility is not determined at a single moment. Opportunity is shaped by access to education and information, but also by confidence, skills, networks, guidance, financial capability and routes into employment.

Technology alone cannot resolve those structural barriers. But designed responsibly and around the realities of the people who will use it, AI may offer new ways to make some of the resources that shape opportunity more accessible. That is what the Challenge Prize will explore.

Ben Younkman, Programme Lead at Social Tech Trust, said: “AI is moving extraordinarily quickly, but access to its benefits will not automatically be equal. That is why we created a Challenge Prize with social mobility at its heart. The eight ventures in this first cohort are tackling very different barriers to opportunity — from education and skills to networks and employment. Over the coming months, we want to help them strengthen the evidence behind their models, develop responsibly and build sustainable routes to scale. This programme is also an opportunity to learn: to understand where AI can genuinely help widen opportunity, where its limitations lie, and what founders, funders and the wider technology ecosystem need to consider if we want this transformation to benefit young people from every background.”

What happens next?

The eight ventures now begin an intensive programme of venture development and expert support. Over the coming months, they will work on their impact models, commercial strategies, technology and responsible innovation practices, supported by expertise from across the programme partnership.

The programme includes 30+ hours of structured learning, one-to-one mentoring and office hours, peer learning and connections to investors, advisers and the wider ecosystem. Expert sessions from Microsoft, LinkedIn, EY, Fieldfisher and HSF Kramer will explore areas including technology, responsible AI, commercial growth, legal and structural considerations, and social mobility.

Each venture will receive a £3,125 non-dilutive participation grant. At the end of the programme, an independent judging panel will award a further £10,000 to the winner and £5,000 to the runner-up, bringing the total funding available through the Challenge Prize to £40,000.

Building with young people, not only for them

A social mobility programme also needs to hear directly from the young people whose opportunities these technologies are intended to expand. Members of the EY Foundation Youth Voice Forum have already contributed to the venture selection process and developed Don’t Build AI Without Us: A Youth Manifesto for AI That Creates Opportunity. Their challenge to innovators is clear: if technology is being designed to influence young people’s education, employment or future opportunities, young people should have meaningful agency in how it is developed.

Throughout the programme, the cohort will be encouraged to consider accessibility, trust, accountability and participation — and to demonstrate how young people’s perspectives influence what they build.

The programme starts here

The cohort was announced on 26 August 2026 at LinkedIn’s London office, marking the start of the programme and bringing together the eight ventures, young people and programme partners for the first time. The event provided an opportunity for founders to meet one another, connect with the wider partnership, and begin the first phase of the Challenge Prize.

The Challenge Prize will run through to October, when the ventures will present their progress to an independent judging panel before the programme culminates in an event at Parliament on 29 October.

Congratulations to AVA, Breakthrough, FIIT Learning, HopeHub, Louno Space, MyPocketSkill, Tangent and Ultra Education — the first cohort of the AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize.

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About the AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize

The AI and Social Mobility Challenge Prize is a new programme focused on how AI and emerging technology can help expand opportunity and improve social mobility for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the UK. It is delivered by EY Foundation and Social Tech Trust, in partnership with the Social Mobility Commission, and supported by Microsoft, HSF Kramer, EY, Fieldfisher and LinkedIn.

The programme combines venture development, responsible innovation, expert support, ecosystem connections and £40,000 in non-dilutive funding to help early-stage ventures strengthen their impact and long-term viability.