The Hult Prize Foundation recently held its Global Final and named the social impact startup Korion Health from the University of Pittsburgh the annual $1 million Hult Prize winner. Korion Health has been developing a home health monitoring kit that enables patients to better understand their own healthcare, working in conjunction with its hardware design partner, Hellbender, a Pennsylvania Social Benefit Corporation. The company’s flagship product is an electronic stethoscope that teaches users how to collect their own heart and lung sounds.
The annual Hult Prize competition challenges for-profit student entrepreneurs from worldwide to create and launch businesses aimed at tackling the most pressing challenges they see in their communities. And this year, the competition welcomed 200,000 participants and 40,000 entrepreneurs from about 113 countries and 2,000 international universities who put forward 9,400 startup ideas. Every startup has to align with at least one U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and have a “triple bottom line” focus on people, planet, and profit.
Every year since 2010, the Hult Prize posed a different challenge to competitors, with previous contests focused on healthcare, food insecurity, early childhood education, and sustainable fashion. But this year in recognition of the competition’s fifteenth anniversary, Hult Prize organizers expanded the competition to unlimited – welcoming all social impact ideas regardless of focus area.
Korion Health was selected for the Prize over five other teams invited to London for the Global Finals, which included:
- Bean Around – University College Dublin, Ireland – Bean Around produces “CoffChar,” which is a type of biochar, from recycled coffee grounds. The process produces clean, renewable energy as a byproduct.
- HerLens – Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia – HerLens utilizes AI to enhance the accuracy of cervical cancer screenings. And the company’s app and device aim to improve early detection via increased screening accuracy and reduced misdiagnosis.
- LothghaApp – Mansoura University, Egypt – LothghaApp offers app-based speech therapy services including access to virtual speech pathologists, learning materials, classes and support groups.
- ProtonCraft – Indian Institute of Technology, India – ProtonCraft has developed proprietary technology focused on decarbonizing oil refineries by turning harmful refinery waste into an alternative energy source: hydrogen.
- Xatoms – University of Toronto and Western University, Canada – Xatoms utilizes quantum chemistry and AI to identify materials that purify water faster and cheaper. And the company’s proprietary AI identifies and validates photocatalytic molecules that could neutralize water pollutants, before quantum chemistry is employed to design photocatalytic materials (in powder form) to neutralize the target pollutant.
The competition also welcomed past Hult Prize winners, current partners, and influential leaders involved with sustainability and social impact investing to serve as judges, including Earth Day Network President Kathleen Rogers , LinHart Group Founder and Chairman Tsun-yan Shieh, BuuPass. CEO Wyclife Omondi (winner of the 2016 Hult Prize), and Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center Vice-Chairperson Najla Al-Midfa.
The winner was announced with featured speaker, actor, startup founder, and environmentalist Maisie Williams – who played Arya Stark on Game of Thrones. During an on-stage interview with Hult Prize CEO Lori van Dam, Williams had highlighted her experience and lessons learned while launching Daisie, a digital platform that empowers creators to present their work, identify opportunities, and collaborate with others to develop and advance their careers.
KEY QUOTES:
“Korion Health is the latest example of a social enterprise that will positively impact the world based on an innovative idea, hard work, and the ability to prove that it is possible to do well by doing good in business. The Hult Prize is honored to support Korion Health while raising awareness for the thousands of businesses that participated in this competition, all of which aim to do their part to help make the world better by solving our shared challenges.”
“Congratulations to Korion Health and to all the outstanding participants who have showcased truly innovative startup ideas with the potential to change our shared future for the better. The social entrepreneurship movement is vibrant and growing. In the past several years, we’ve doubled the number of startups competing, while welcoming teams from nearly all of the world’s top 500 universities. As we look to the future, it gives me hope that our most pressing global challenges can be solved through social enterprise.”
- Lori van Dam, CEO, Hult Prize
