Empowering Student Entrepreneurs
Empowering Student Entrepreneurs
Media Kit
            hultprize.org   2
     Leading a generation to
     change the world
     The Hult Prize is the world’s foremost platform
     for the creation and launch of sustainable and impact
     centered startups emerging from university,
     offering a grand prize of USD1 million.
3   hultprize.org
                    “If you can create a real business,
                     the beginning of a prototype,
                     you can change the world.”
                     Muhammad Yunus
                     2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
5   hultprize.org
     Launching the next generation
     of social entrepreneurs
     The Hult Prize Foundation continues to transform lives as well as
     communities. As the leading program for action-based, immersion-driven
     student entrepreneurship, it mobilizes the smartest minds from more
     than 100 countries to apply their business thinking to solve the world’s
     most pressing issues. Through on-campus, national and global level
     programming, the Hult Prize aims to launch the next generation of
     entrepreneurs who are impact centered, profit minded and market driven.
7   hultprize.org
“The Nobel Prize for students”
—Bloomberg & Huffington Post
                                                     Ahmad Ashkar
                                                     Hult International Business School
                                                     MBA Class of 2010
                                                     CEO & Founder of Hult Prize
                                                     Esquire Magazine’s Entrepreneur
                                                     of the Year
                                                              hultprize.org           8
     Social Impact
     The Hult Prize Foundation challenges young people to solve
     the world’s toughest issues by empowering them to make money,
     do good, and make life better for millions of people through the
     creation of for-good, for-profit businesses.
     Through leveraging human capital and                 2012 winner Sunny Money is one of Africa’s
     knowledge like never before, the Hult Prize          largest solar light distributors. Aspire Food Group,
     has helped launch social enterprises that serve      the 2013 winner, is the largest manufacturer
     the least fortunate, tackle humanity’s greatest      of insect protein in the world. IMPCT, the 2015
     challenges, and pursue large, untapped markets.      winner, is one of Asia’s largest specialty coffee
     Every year, the Hult Prize has crafted challenges    retailers and have built schools in El Salvador,
     and helped launch startups that actively solve UN    Guatemala, and South Africa.Finally, 2016 winner,
     Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).                BuuPass has just been selected as the official
                                                          ticketing provider for Kenya’s Standard Gauge
     The Hult Prize environment has helped many
                                                          Railway (SGR).
     successful entrepreneurs take off. In 2016,
     fourteen Hult Prize entrepreneurs were named         This is just a sampling of the incredible impact
     to the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Today, m.Paani,      Hult Prize entrepreneurs are having in the world
     the Hult Prize 2011 winner, is the largest loyalty   as passionate and enthusiastic game-changers in
     and rewards program focused on India’s poorest.      the social enterprise space.
9   hultprize.org
2016 Hult Prize Winner:                                                                     2013 Hult Prize Winner
BuuPass                                                                                     Aspire Food Group’s product
               2011                                         2014
                                                                                                           featured mobile payments and tracking.
               2012                                         2015
                                                                                                           opening of UN Week in New York
                                                                                                           in September.
               Energy
                                                            Early childhood education
               Students worked with SolarAid to
                                                            A team from Taiwan’s National Chengchi
               eliminate the use of kerosense lights by
                                                            University won with a business that builds
               2017. Sunny Money, a new division of
                                                            children’s education franchises, run by
               SolarAid went on to use the seed funding
                                                            local women, to reach 10 million children
               to pioneer new distribution models across
                                                            by 2020.
               sub-saharan Africa.
                                                                                                                                hultprize.org         10
AHMAD ASHKAR I Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Ahmad Ashkar is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Hult Prize Foundation –
named in a TIME Magazine cover story featuring the top five ideas changing the world. Founded in
2009, today the foundation represents the world’s largest community of impact centered startup
entrepreneurs emerging from university. Recognized as the 2017 CEO of the Year by Arabian
Business and the 2016 Esquire Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, Ahmad has spent nearly a
decade creating, launching and advising for-good, for-profit companies in more than 100 countries.
Ahmad is a leading authority in entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, having created open
innovation platforms for leading corporations, philanthropists, businessmen and government leaders
across the world, including co-founding, “The Laudato Si Challenge - Inspired by Pope Francis.” He
serves as an advisory board member of the United Nations Development Program and is a member
of the Entrepreneurs Expert Network of the World Economic Forum.
He also serves as an adviser to family offices, religious institutions, private and government sector
entities across the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Asia. He is the author of the
forthcoming book, “The Pursuit of Impact” and an active advocate for Middle East Peace. Mr. Ashkar
resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife Tanya and three children, Nano, Layan and Adam. In D.C.
Ahmad is Chairman of the Board of Falafel Inc which he founded in 2016 and serves as an adviser
to the economic development department of George Mason University and is a guest lecturer at
MIT Sloan, Georgetown, AUB and the Hult International Business School – where he earned his
MBA in international business and was the 2015 alumnus of the year.
                                     2016
      Previous
      winners
      The Hult Prize alumni of
      winners and finalists are
      changing trajectories and
      restoring hope in our youth.
                                     BuuPass
2013
IMPCT                                     2014
IMPCT are the winners of the 2015
Hult Prize and are the world’s first
impact trade company, where they
                                                                                     Aspire Food Group
use specialty coffee to build quality
preschool education at origin. Impact
trade is a new development and                                                       Aspire Food Group is the 2013 winner
business model whereby products are                                                  of the Hult Prize. A commercial
sourced from vulnerable communities                                                  manufacturer of alternative protein
and the proceeds from sale are                                                       sources such as insects, Aspire has
invested, not donated, into proven                                                   re-imagined the livestock industry
interventions at origin. This impact                                                 and as a result has created an
trade model is a response to mounting                                                innovative sector, which they are
evidence that popular ethical product                                                currently leading in the automated
models have failed almost completely                                                 manufacturing of insects as a protein
in their goal of improving the lives of
                                          NanoHealth
                                                                                     Local and international manufacturing
those who need it most.
                                                                                     facilities weaved into a micro-works
Their impact trade Coffee for the         NanoHealth is a social enterprise          business model has led to the rapid
Future program sources specialty          specializing in chronic disease            scale of an organization the United
coffee from poor communities and          management in urban slums.                 Nations calls “a company whose
transparently invests 100% of the         NanoHealth creates a network of            time has come” for their disruptive
revenue back into local women to          community health workers called            approach to global food insecurity.
build and own Playcare preschools.        “Saathis” and equips them with
Through this model they’ve quickly        low-cost point of care devices called
become one of Asia’s largest specialty    Doc-in-a-BagTM. With the help of
coffee retailers and have built schools   the right care model and scalable
in El Salvador, Guatemala, and South      technology, NanoHealth promises a
Africa with upcoming projects in          winning model for the fight against
Kenya and Tanzania. You can read          chronic disease and aims to prevent a
more about their Coffee for the Future    million premature deaths every year.
model at their new http://forthefuture.   NanoHealth is currently scaling its
co website.”                              services in South India where it is the
                                          official healthcare data supplier to the
                                          government
                                                                                                     hultprize.org       12
      2017 Challenge:
      Reawakening
      Human Potential
      Building sustainable, scalable startup enterprises
      which restore the rights and dignity of one million
      refugees by 2022.
13   hultprize.org
Darell Hammond     Neal Keny-Guyer    Muna AbuSulayman
Founder, KaBoom!   CEO, Mercy Corps   Media Personality and
                                      Philanthropist
                                                  hultprize.org   14
      2017 Hult Prize Finalists
      This year’s finalists have been selected from a pool of over
      50,000 participants, representing more than 100 countries.
      They impressed judges that included top-tier executives from
      the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Their start-ups are
      innovative, disruptive, catalytic, and now one step closer to helping
      refugees around the world.
          Roshni Rides is a transportation network company           U-gas is a social enterprise that provides dry toilets
          that provides accessible, affordable and reliable          to refugees and uses the biowaste to generate
          public transportation for urbanized refugees living        revenues from the sale of biogas and fertilizer. Toilets
          in informal settlements in South Asia. Roshni Rides        are cleaned daily through a subscription basis and
          optimizes the existing infrastructure of rickshaws and     the biowaste is collected weekly. A biodigester is
          drivers to create a formalized A to B shuttle service.     used to convert the fecal matter to a commercialized
          Paired with ridesharing, the solution has driven down      product and then sold through pre-negotiated supply
          transport costs and made it more accessible. Roshni        agreements.
          Rides utilizes routes and a card transaction platform
                                                                     Dry toilets and biodigesters are proven technologies,
          inspired by the New York City Subway system to
                                                                     and there are numerous companies around the world
          create a reliable service. Pricing is controlled through
                                                                     deploying these technologies. However, none are
          the purchase of a preloaded Roshni Card, similar to a
                                                                     focused on forced migrant and refugee communities
          metrocard, to use the service. Roshni Cards guarantee
                                                                     and that’s where U-gas comes in. Pilot locations in
          that customers will pay a fixed price rather than having
                                                                     Mexico have proven that there is high-demand for dry
          to face haggling and price uncertainties. Roshni Rides
                                                                     toilets in the resettlement communities.
          is a private solution to a public problem.
15   hultprize.org
University of Waterloo                                      University of Calgary
EPOCH is the first B2B digital platform to empower          Kwado is a mobile to text message based job-
socio-economic integration by connecting refugees           matching platform that connects employers
to local communities through a skills exchange              (corporations, contractors, private individuals) to low-
marketplace. An enterprise solution which leverages         to-mid wage prospective workers in the construction
Software as a Solution (SaaS), EPOCH has built a            industry. Once a track record is established, the
robust technology platform which it is licensing            platform then connects workers to a skills upgrading
to governments, aid organizations and private               pathway based on industry demand and user interest.
companies to directly access refugee and migrant            The skill-matching system is designed to transform
communities more efficiently at the integration stage.      the way people are trained and provides a roadmap
Lack of direct access by members of a community to          to continuously find “upgraded” work. This platform
newcomers is costing the world billions. In 2016 alone,     bridges the gap between labor demand and labor
the EU spent $20 billion and N. America sepnt $4.6          supply by training workers on the skills urgently
billion on resettlement services for newcomers . Under      needed in growing industries and connecting them to
this premise, EPOCH was created. EPOCH aims to              the formal and informal job market through a digital
build resilient communities where both refugees and         matching system. Workers are constantly rated and
community members can thrive together.                      certified to ensure consistency and quality.
Empower is a digital content provider with a                Dignify is building one of today’s largest refugee
proprietary software technology called EmpowerNet           workforces by employing them to fulfill digital work
- an innovative web browser that provides emerging          secured from Fortune 1000 corporations and beyond.
markets with accessible, affordable, and fast access        A proprietary digital algorithm matches refugees with
to content on the internet - without the need of            employment opportunities on the Dignify network.
mobile data. Through “Last Mile Internet Caching” the       Dignigy uses the digital economy and 93% connectivity
delivery of web content is done through downloading         rates to solve the problem of unemployment amongst
it once from the internet and making it available to        refugees. The Dignify platform is accessible via mobile
an entire community without incurring costs for each        phone, tablet, or desktops and enables a seamless
user. The innovative product manages demand and             connection between refugees and on-demand digital
optimizes data usage to provide affordable access to        work needs of companies. This turn-key platform will
the internet. Installations are maintaned through local     map out and resolve host country law, payment, and web
partners such as UNHCR, keeping startup costs low           hosting hurdles. Based on current traction, it is estimated
and include very little hardware to get fully operational   that Dignify will employ and restore income to 2.5 million
WiFi hotspots in refugee camps and urban slums up           refugees by 2022 and improve economic outcomes for
and running. This technology closes the access gap          otherwise struggling, host countries.
for refugee communities around the world.
                                                                                                             hultprize.org   16
                  Hult Prize Incubator
                  The world’s largest incubator for social enterprise.
                  A custom tailored, 8-week program hosted in a castle.
 The Hult Prize business incubator is a          classes, speakers, workshops, pitches,         people across disciplines to solve well-
 cutting-edge, seven-week program that           and multi-disciplinary expert coaches and      defined challenges through rapid ideation,
 runs every summer at Hult International         mentors who guide the startups through         prototyping, iteration, and measurement.
 Business School’s Ashridge Estate               some of their most critical inputs.
 campus in the UK.                                                                              Each week of the program challenges
                                                 The incubator supports teams as they           teams to meet milestones and compete
 Each year, the top finalist startups from       register legal entities, draft founders’       across multiple competency areas for the
 the various on-campus, in-country and           agreements, brainstorm ideas, pilot their      opportunity to present as one of the six
 global Hult Prize funnels are provided with     offerings, design their marketing materials,   finalists of the Global UN Hult Prize Finals.
 living and working spaces, along with the       refine business models, prototype, secure
 opportunity to hone their business skills,      their first customers, and finalize business   The incubator is a central element of
 network with business and academic              plans. There is a deliberate focus on real,    the Hult Prize process, and seeks to
 leaders, register their entities, and prepare   market-driven artifacts and results.           ‘graduate’ startups whose teams are fully
 for launch.                                                                                    engaged, companies bankable and whose
                                                 The Hult Prize approach involves bringing      products and services are ready for
 The innovative program includes weekly          together some of the most passionate           market launch.
 17             hultprize.org
Program Structure
Each week, startups focus on one broad       investors and expert judges from leading                          Incubator
topic (seven in total throughout the         corporations and academic institutions                            Key Statistics
program), spend one day in the classroom,    and receiving detailed actionable
four days in the field, and pitch to an      feedback.
                                                                                                               400+
audience of judges on Friday. Topics
range from understanding your customer       Workshops Workshops at the Hult Prize
to refining your business model.             Incubator take place once or twice a
                                             week, and they are held in an open                                hours of support in
Facilities Hult Prize provides every team    classroom setting. Entrepreneurs work                             one-on-one sessions by
with state-of-the-art office space that      within teams on the assigned exercises,                           more than 80 experts
includes classrooms, an auditorium,          with a particular emphasis on hands-on                            investors, coaches,
a cafeteria, and mail/print services.        learning and results.                                             judges, speakers,
Entrepreneurs are also provided with                                                                           and entrepreneurs
shared living spaces that include social     Networking Networking activities are an
opportunities and custom content in an
informal and friendly setting.
                                             integral part of the incubation program, as
                                             they help entrepreneurs develop personal                          14
                                             relationships with fellow competitors,
                                                                                                               expert-run workshops
Coaching Coaches spend a minimum             build lifelong friendships, broaden their
                                                                                                               are guided by the
of 2-4 hours per week working closely        networks, and cross-pollinate ideas.
                                                                                                               incubator guided teams
with the teams to help draft business
                                             The Hult Prize support team includes:                             through a seven-work
plans, refine business models and value
                                                                                                               curriculum
proposition, secure their first customers,   U7H=CB7C57<9G
build partnerships, and gain access to
valuable advisors.
                                             U:57=@=H5HCF
                                             U)5B9@C:58J=GCFG                                               350+
                                             U,I6>97H
A5HH9F9LD9FHG
Mentorship Incubator speakers provide                                                                          combined hours
                                             U"B8IGHFM@9589FG
30-45 minute presentations followed by                                                                         were spent by the
                                             ULH9FB5@B9HKCF?G
general Q&A sessions. Teams are given                                                                          teams on pitching,
the opportunity to sign up for one-on-one                                                                      working directly
time with every speaker for individualized                                                                     with their coaches,
support and ongoing mentorship.                                                                                in one-on-one sessions
                                                                                                               with VIP speakers
                                                                                                               25+
                                                                                                               corporate and
                                                                                                               foundation
                                                                                                               supporters provided
                                                                                                               content to the
                                                                                                               accelerator program
                                                                                                                hultprize.org        18
Hult offers a global education on
modern campuses in Boston,
San Francisco, London, and Dubai
with rotation centers in Shanghai
and New York.
                                                                       hultprize.org   20
      2017
      UN Global Goals
      Weeks
      The Hult Prize Foundation is honored to kick off United Nations
      Global Goals Week 2017– a collective effort to maximize the value
      of events and activations held during UN General Assembly week
      and focused on driving progress toward the Sustainable Development
      Goals.
      Global Goals Week was originally               Foundation and the World Economic
      piloted last year by organizing partners       Forum, positioning the week as a strong
      Project Everyone, the United Nations           platform for collective action in support
      Development Programme (UNDP), and              of the SDGs, maximizing the impact of a
      the United Nations Foundation. This            variety of events, public activations, and
      year, the Hult Prize has come on as a          digital surges that are all designed to raise
      founding partner and joins more than a         awareness and spur progress toward
      dozen new partners who have joined the         achievement of the global goals.
      effort, including the Bill and Melinda Gates
                         Kathy Calvin
                         President & CEO of the
                         UN Foundation
23   hultprize.org
hultprize.org   24
Global Hult Prize
Regional Finalists
N. America (Atlantic)                           National Chengchi University
                                                Northwestern University
                                                                                              Northwestern University
                                                                                              Royal College of Art
                                                                                                                                            Management
                                                                                                                                            University of Virginia
Babson College                                  Ontario College of Art and Design             Sabanci University                            VERN University of Applied Sciences
Boston College                                  Oregon State University                       Sciences Po, Paris                            Western University
Brandeis University                             Pinchot University                            Stockholm School of Economics                 York University-Schulich School of Business
Brown University                                Saint Mary’s College of California            Universitas Indonesia
College of William & Mary                       Stanford University                           Universitat Pompeu Fabra-Barcelona School     Asia
Columbia University                             Tecnológico de Monterrey                      of Management
                                                                                                                                            Asian Institute of Management
Cornell University                              The American University in Cairo              University of Birmingham
                                                                                                                                            Australian National University
Duke University                                 The British University in Egypt               University of Cambridge
                                                                                                                                            Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Earlham College                                 The Ohio State University                     University of Cambridge-Judge Business
                                                                                                                                            Technology
ESADE                                           Universidad de Oriente                        School
                                                                                                                                            Binus International University
Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco                Université de M’hamed Bougara                 University of Exeter
                                                                                                                                            BRAC University
George Washington University                    Boumerdes                                     University of Jordan
                                                                                                                                            Chinese University of Hong Kong
Georgia Institute of Technology                 University of Calgary                         University of Manchester-Manchester
                                                                                                                                            Dankook University
Harvard Business School                         University of California, Berkeley            Business School
                                                                                                                                            Foreign Trade University, Vietnam
Harvard University                              University of California, Irvine              University of Oxford
                                                                                                                                            Griffith University
HEC Montreal                                    UCLA-Anderson School of Management            University of St Andrews
                                                                                                                                            Hitotsubashi University
Hult International Business School, Boston      University of California, San Diego           University of Strathclyde
                                                                                                                                            Hong Kong University of Science and
IIT Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur   University of California, Santa Barbara       University of Tunis
                                                                                                                                            Technology
Indiana University                              University of California, Santa Cruz          University of Warwick-Warwick Business
                                                                                                                                            Hult International Business School,
Johns Hopkins University                        University of Cambridge                       School
                                                                                                                                            Shanghai
Massachusetts Institute of Technology           University of Central Florida                 University of Zurich
                                                                                                                                            IE University
McGill University                               University of Chicago-Booth School of         Waterloo University
                                                                                                                                            Indian Institute of Technology
Monterey Institute of International Studies     Business                                      York University-Schulich School of Business
                                                                                                                                            J. F. Oberlin University
at Monterey                                     University of Hawai’i at Manoa
New York University-Steinhardt School           University of Michigan                        Middle East                                   Monash University
                                                                                                                                            Nanyang Technological University
of Culture, Education, and Human                University of Notre Dame
                                                                                              American University of Nigeria                National University of Singapore
Development                                     University of Saskatchewan
                                                                                              Amity University                              Ontario College of Art and Design
Northeastern University                         University of Southern California
                                                                                              Ashesi University, Ghana                      Peking University-HSBC Business School
Northwestern University–Kellogg School of       University of St. Thomas-Opus College of
                                                                                              Ashoka University                             RMIT International University Vietnam
Management                                      Business
                                                                                              Asian Institute of Management                 Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance
Princeton University                            University of Tampa
                                                                                              Aston University                              Sophia University
Queen’s University–Smith School of              University of Toronto-Rotman School of
                                                                                              Bangladesh University of Engineering and      Surya University
Business                                        Management
                                                                                              Technology                                    Tsinghua University
Rutgers University                              Vanderbilt University
                                                                                              Bocconi University-SDA Bocconi School of      University of Cambridge
Tecnológico de Monterrey                        Warwick Business School
                                                                                              Management                                    University of International Business and
University of California, Irvine-The Paul       York University-Schulich School of Business
                                                                                              British University                            Economics
Merage School of Business
University of Central Florida                   Europe                                        Chinese University of Hong Kong
                                                                                              Delhi Technological University
                                                                                                                                            University of Macau
                                                                                                                                            University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China
University of Cincinnati-Carl H. Lindner                                                                                                    University of Pennsylvania
                                                Africa University                             École Centrale Paris
College of Business                                                                                                                         University of Shanghai for Science and
                                                American University in Cairo                  Erasmus University-Rotterdam School of
University of Iowa                                                                                                                          Technology
                                                Aston University                              Management
University of Pennsylvania                                                                                                                  University of Southern California
                                                Ateneo De Manila University                   ESADE
University of Tampa                                                                                                                         University of Tokyo
                                                Audencia School of Management                 HEC Paris
University of the West Indies, Mona                                                                                                         University of Toronto-Rotman School of
                                                Birla Institute of Technology & Science,      Hult International Business School, Dubai
University of Virginia                                                                                                                      Management
                                                Pilani-Goa                                    IE Business School
University of Waterloo                                                                                                                      Vietnam National University
                                                Bocconi University-SDA Bocconi School of      Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
University of Western Ontario                                                                                                               Xingwei College
                                                Management                                    Indian School of Business
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of                                                                                                   Yonsei University
                                                Boise State University                        INSEAD
Business                                                                                                                                    York University-Schulich School of Business
                                                British University Egypt                      Institute of Management Technology,
Villanova University                                                                                                                        The University of Tokyo
                                                Central European University                   Ghaziabad
Washington University-Olin Business School                                                                                                  Tsinghua University
                                                Chinese University of Hong Kong               Isra University
Yale University                                                                                                                             University of International Business and
                                                Cornell University-Samuel Curtis Johnson      Johns Hopkins University
York University-Schulich School of Business                                                                                                 Economics
                                                Graduate School of Management                 King Abdullah University of Science and
1 hultprize.org