By Lorena Beltrán, co-campus director Hult Prize UVG. Original article from the UVG CREA Blog.

The 2024 Hult Prize On Campus UVG competition culminated on Saturday, February 24, featuring the highest number of teams in its history. The On Campus Program, a student-led initiative, aims to empower students to become social entrepreneurs and launch impactful startups that tackle contemporary problems related to each year’s challenge. This year, the challenge theme was “Unlimited,” offering entrepreneurs the flexibility to devise social entrepreneurship models capable of addressing any Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

The Hult Prize is the largest social entrepreneurship competition for young university students. Students from all over the world participate with the intention of winning one million dollars in seed capital to bring their innovative ideas to life. The journey to the finals begins with qualifying competitions held within each participating university campus worldwide. The On Campus program is made possible UVG through the Emprende Club, a student group, with the support of the UVG-CREA Entrepreneurship Center.

Teams participating in the On Campus final. Photo: UVG

This year, students flexed their creativity to the fullest by devising a wide range of innovative solutions to their challenges. In line with the theme, the diverse proposals, ranging from an innovative concrete mixture to a platform that facilitates the replanting process for sugar mills, showcased the participants’ ingenuity and underscored the program’s transformative potential within the UVG Community.

Participants

More than 30 teams registered for the event, but only nine advanced to the finals. Involving a total of 38 students, seven of the teams were from the Central Campus, and two were from the South Campus, demonstrating student enthusiasm for entrepreneurship throughout the UVG campuses.

Judges

The judging panel comprised eight outstanding figures from various fields, each offering unique perspectives and criteria that greatly enhanced the evaluation process for participating teams, including:

• Luis Diego Fernández, co-founder and COO of Sento
• Diego Fernández Townson, co-founder and CEO of Sento
• Piero Coen, co-founder and CEO of Osmo. 
• Juan Fernando Ramos, operations and manufacturing coordinator at Emporium Guatemala.
• Ingrid Gamboa, co-founder and CEO of Ethikos Global.
• Alex Macfarlan, general manager of Albedo Solar. 
• Eneko Arberas, director of labor inclusion at Creamos Guatemala. 
• Natalia Soto, manager of the magazine El Ferretero/Ferretexpo

Juan Fernando, Luis Diego, Natalia Soto and Diego Fernández. Photo: UVG

Agenda

The day commenced with the arrival of the judges and participants at the event’s opening, which included Diego Fernández-Townson, pioneer of the Hult Prize at UVG and part of the competition jury, who spoke briefly about the history and evolution of the program at the university. Diego emphasized the personal significance of the program’s impact on him and expressed pride in witnessing the enduring legacy he has left at UVG.

Diego Fernández Townson opened the competition. Photo: UVG

Next, the agenda and the order of the team presentations were announced. Everyone moved to the Pitch Room and officially began the competition. Each team had 4 minutes to present their business pitch, followed by and, five minutes for questions from the judges.

After the first round of pitches, judges were tasked with deciding which four teams had the greatest potential. They weighed each team’s structure, idea, feasibility, business plan, and oral presentation. Plastimix, Ahau-x, Biopower, and Eco Residuum were selected to advance to the next round. The four teams each received individualized feedback and had an hour-long break to refine the details of the pitch and present again.

The next round was similar in structure, but moved venues to the auditorium on the seventh floor of the CIT building. After the teams presented, the judges deliberated in a private space, while the 9 participating teams and the Hult Prize On Campus UVG organizing committee were recognized for their work and contributions to the development of the competition.

Winner!

At last, Biopower was crowned the winning team! They will advance in the competition against students from other campuses toward the million-dollar prize. Biopower’s proposal included a sustainable business model that promotes the circular economy in the energy sector. Based on research seeking to improve the standard process for producing biodiesel on an industrial scale, it aims to reduce the use of methanol, a petroleum derivative, and replace it with a base of used vegetable oil and ethanol.

The Biopower Team. Photo: UVG

The students that make up the team are: Diego Adolfo López Castillo and José Pablo Paiz Hernández, students of Chemical Engineering; Marlon José González Argueta, Mechanical Engineering; Valeria Fernanda Sierra Cano, Industrial Biotechnology Engineering; and Rodrigo Arís García, student of Industrial Chemical Engineering.

What next?

This program is a cycle. With the official closing of the On Campus competition begins preparation for next year’s competation. The UVG committee is currently seeking a new director to direct and nurture the event for years to come.

The Biopower team’s journey is only beginning. They will pitch again in one of the nine cities in which the Hult Prize competes, including, but not limited to New York, Nairobi, Monterrey, Boston, and Tunisia. Their destination is unknown at the moment, but it is expected to be announced sometime in April.

The selection of the destination depends on several factors, including the team’s interest and venue hosting abilities. Typically, projects that are more similar to each other end up in the same summit.

Each team has until June to raise funds to attend their summits that month. If they advance to the summit, they move on to the next stage, known as The Accelerator, and later, to the final that takes place in Paris, France.

The Competition Grows

One significant aspect of this year’s event was the number of people involved in the project. It was not long ago when the committee was small, around five people, and unable to include many teams. This year, the committee was made up of more than 15 people. This improved the competition’s image, in and outside of the university. Participation and visibility of the program increased significantly, resulting in more people connecting and participating in the program.

As participation increases, more students are seizing these opportunities, to generate significant changes and transformations in their communities.

“The Hult Prize is about looking for alternatives with social and economic impact and looking for a change within UVG that can then expand worldwide,” says Emmanuel Sandoval, a student of Mechatronics Engineering and a member of Plastimix.

The Plastimix team, second place winners.

With the success of this year’s event, the future is optimistic for the Biopower team and the development of the program at the university. We hope that in future events the committee continues to grow, and the participating projects continue to leave their mark on the world through the Hult Prize.

About ASPIRE

The ASPIRE Project is a five-year, $15 million project funded by USAID and implemented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), and the Guatemalan Exporters Association (AGEXPORT), with the goal of creating a world-class, replicable model for how Latin American universities, in collaboration with the private sector, government, and local communities, can respond to local and regional development needs. The project implements a collaborative approach to research, teaching, innovation, entrepreneurship, and tech transfer, based on the combination of local assets and knowledge with MIT’s experience in the innovation ecosystem.