Beyoncé is trying to help mothers around the world, and she’s using a startup to do it.
According to the TED blog, TED Fellow Jane Chen received a $125,000 donation from Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to spur development of Chen’s portable, low-cost incubator.
The announcement came during Gucci’s Chime For Change anniversary party, an organization co-founded by Beyoncé, Frida Giannini, and Salma Hayek Pinault.
Embrace Innovations, a medical organization created by Jane Chen, creates the Embrace Nest, a low-cost incubator for keeping infants warm.
Current incubators are complicated, stationary, and require constant electricity. Embrace’s Nest incubator doesn’t require continuous power, can remain warm for four hours at a time, and consumes less than 15 watts in “ready” mode.
According to Embrace Innovations, 20 million low birth-weight and premature babies are born each year around the world, while 450 die every hour. Hypothermia, a condition where the body’s temperature drops to dangerous levels, is a major cause of death among infants with low birth-weight.
Knowles-Carter’s donation will help kickstart pilot testing of the Embrace Nest in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda.