Creating businesses
for a better world
The Hult Prize is a worldwide student competition that
challenges university teams to solve the most pressing global
issues with viable business ideas.
Ideas that change lives Money to make a difference
Our students have always wanted to make a
difference. In 2009 while studying for his MBA at Hult
Boston, Ahmad Ashkar was inspired to do business
differently. While working on an MBA project, he
realized the power of crowd-sourcing ideas and the
on-the-ground impact social entrepreneurship could
have on the most disadvantaged communities. The
Hult Prize was born. Each year the Hult Prize focuses on a specific social
problem. Students around the world form teams and
develop social enterprises that solve this problem.
Through a series of elimination competitions around
the world, 40 teams are selected to attend the Hult
Prize accelerator at Hult’s Ashridge campus in the
U.K. From this accelerator program five to six teams
go through to present at the Global Finals, hosted
at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The winning team is awarded $1M USD to get their
business off the ground.
The Hult Prize
challenges the
brightest minds to
solve the world’s
toughest problems
2010
Early childhood
education
The Hult Prize
partnered with One
Laptop Per Child to
provide educational
opportunities to
the world’s poorest
children through
affordable laptops.
2011
Clean water crisis
A University of
Cambridge team
collaborated with
water.org and won
with a loyalty scheme
allowing people
to pool points from
telecom partners
to fund clean
water projects.
2012
Education, housing,
and energy
Students worked with
One Laptop Per Child,
Habitat for Humanity,
and SolarAid. The
winners were from
Carnegie Mellon,
NYU Abu Dhabi,
and Hult International
Business School.
2013
The global food crisis
A McGill University
team won with
an enterprise that
makes crickets
into a viable food
source for urban
slum communities.