Sir Richard Branson appeared via Google Hangouts to grant four British charities £500k.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, WeFarm and Centrepoint were all announced as winners of Google’s Impact Challenge by a judging panel that included Dragon Peter Jones and Jimmy Wales.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind was the fourth winner which was chosen by the general public.
Massive Global Change
The competition challenged UK charities to change the world through innovative technology.
Richard Branson praised the initiative:
All ten finalists have shown the UK and international non-profit community that the adoption of tech innovation can drive massive, global change that can transform the lives of millions of vulnerable people and species the world over.
On top of the cash, the winning organisations will receive mentoring from Google and event sponsors Nesta to deliver their projects .
The winning projects
Branson phoned in via Hangouts from Necker Island to reveal the winners.
Winning projects included crowdsourcing data to help prevent mosquito-borne diseases by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and data analytics to keep young people off the street by Centrepoint.
Not to disappoint the six companies that didn’t win, Google announced they would all be receiving £200k and mentorship.