Hult Prize is a year-long, global competition that challenges young people to solve the world’s most pressing issues by creating innovative social ventures and social entrepreneurship for which it is the world’s biggest engine for the launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from universities in more than 100 countries with volunteers around the world.
Every year, one team receives 1.0 million US dollars in funding for turning their best idea into reality.
The participants not only become conscious entrepreneurs but also form part of a new generation of global leaders. The Hult Prize has been referred to as the "Nobel Prize for students" by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
With a decade of impact, the Hult Prize has crafted challenges and helped launch startups that actively solve UN SDGs. Previous HP challenges include the global food crisis, refugee crisis, and harnessing the power of energy, healthcare, and education.
WHAT’S THE CHALLENGE?
The challenge changes every year, but all challenges aim to solve a UN Sustainable Development Goal. For example, last year’s challenge was to design a startup that generated a positive impact on our planet with every dollar earned, meaning that all profits made by the company will go directly towards their desired method of saving the earth.
The startup should also be able to net 1.0 million consumers.
THE CHALLENGE FOR 2023: REDESIGNING FASHION
Hult Prize 2022-2023 challenges you to create a for-profit social venture in the fashion/clothing industry. Your idea must create a measurable positive impact on people and the planet and support the United Nations in meeting its Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline.
Today’s apparel industry is not sustainable. Every stage of its value chain is harmful to both people and the planet. Fashion is the world’s second-most polluting industry, after oil. Much of its ecosystem is troubled by inhumane working conditions and ineffective social protection.
DO BRAC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS EVEN STACK UP?
Brac University students have achieved remarkable success in the prestigious competition hosted by the Hult International Business School since its inception.
In 2016, Team Synergy Global. co, a team from Bangladesh won the Shanghai Regional Round of the Hult Prize, defeating 45 teams from top business schools. Their business provides entrepreneurs with a collaborative business platform, which connects them to capital goods and partners, while vastly expanding their market reach through a human network. This focused on entrepreneurs because they already have an established business. Expanding and building upon that will not only increase their income but also creates employment opportunities for many.
In the following year, Resurgence burst into the spotlight with their innovative idea to combat that year’s challenge: “Refugees - Reawakening Human Potential.” They are a Dhaka[1]based social business which seeks to provide sanitary products made from water hyacinth, a sustainable material that combats the social issues of hygiene, especially in rural areas. Later that year, Resurgence made it to the Top 6 of the Shanghai Regionals and was given the seed capital of Tk 0.10 million, sponsored by City Bank Limited, as the BRACU Hult prize winner.
In 2020, Team Shurjomukhi's social business pitch on biodegradable plastic made from seaweed became the champion of the Hult Prize On-Campus organized by Brac University.
The talented group of individuals then went on to represent Bangladesh on the global level and reached the top 6 of the Vietnam regionals.
Hult Prize at BRACU is an on-campus case competition that provides students with the opportunity to have a significant social impact and win seed funding for their idea! The Hult Prize is an amazing experience for students that they will not regret. Now it is your turn to be the global changemakers!