Apply: $1 Million Hult Prize Student Enterprise Challenge 2018

Moving forward with the eighth annual Hult Prize, thousands of university students worldwide will team up to create start-ups aimed at solving an issue faced by billions in need. More than 10,000 applicants will begin the journey, and only 300 start-ups from around the world will move on to pitch their start-up ideas at one of five global locations: Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai.

About Award:

The Hult Prize Foundation is a start-up accelerator for budding young social entrepreneurs emerging from the world’s universities. Named as one of the top five ideas changing the world by President Bill Clinton and TIME Magazine, the annual competition for the Hult Prize aims to create and launch the most compelling social business ideas—start-up enterprises that tackle grave issues faced by billions of people. Winners receive USD1 Million in seed capital, as well as mentorship and advice from the international business community.

To be Taken:

At any five Hult Prize regions. Grand Prize of $1,000,000 will be awarded at Washington D.C

Theme:

Energy

The 2018 Hult Prize Challenge as announced by President Bill Clinton at the United Nations is: “Harnessing the Power of Energy to Transform the Lives of 10 Million People.” Hult Prize is not necessarily looking for the next big breakthrough in energy, but rather we are looking at the application of various energy innovations to change the world. Much like the light bulb. See, it wasn’t the invention of the light bulb that changed everything, it was how people like you took that tech innovation and lit up the world with it. That’s what we are solving with this year’s challenge. Good luck!

This year’s Hult Prize Challenge walks you through six core areas affected by energy use that may form the basis of 2018 entries. The six dimensions ripe for transformation through energypowered innovation include:
● Connectivity
● Mobility
● Farming, food, and agriculture
● Water collection, storage and transport
● Health and the human experience
● Education

This year’s Hult Prize Challenge pushes you even further than previous Challenges, as it asks teams to do two things in parallel:
● Extend your reach: Search across campus, throughout town, and around the world to find the energy-driven technologies that are not realizing their potential to propel progress.
● Get out of the building: Find users and learn about their needs. Don’t just imagine how you can use energy to enable new capabilities—prove it.

Selection Process:

You will be asked to form a team of 3-4 students from your university and submit an application to participate at any of the regional finals locations held in: Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai, Toronto, Mexico City, Quito, Bogota, Melbourne, Lagos, Nairobi, Cairo, Tunisia, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Alternatively, your university may be hosting a Hult Prize@ on-campus event, in which case you can fast track your team’s participation through competing in your local university edition.
Regional Finals will be held in March 2018. Approximately 50-60 teams per region, will move on to present their innovative start-up ideas to an executive jury made up of regional CEOs, Non-Profit leaders and Social Entrepreneurs.
When you apply, you should carefully consider which regional final you would like to attend.
While we encourage you to pick a region within proximity to where you currently live, you are free to choose any of the five regions. A regional champion will be selected live at the conclusion of each regional final event and that team will move onto spend the summer at the world-class Hult Prize Accelerator – an innovative incubator for the start-ups of the future.
Following the conclusion of your time working in the Hult Prize Accelerator, you will attend the Hult Impact Forum where the Hult Prize Global Finals will be hosted in September, 2018 in New York, USA. Within the meeting agenda, regional champions will pitch their start-ups in-front of a world-class audience, who along with other notable global leaders will select and award the winning team the Hult Prize, along with USD1 million in start-up capital.