President Bill Clinton selects Early Childhood Education as 2015 Hult Prize $1M Start-up Challenge

Applications to compete in the world's largest student competition are now open.

www.hultprize.org

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Oct 20, 2014, 12:52 ET

BOSTON, Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hult Prize Foundation announced today that President Bill Clinton has selected Early Childhood Education as the topic for the sixth annual Hult Prize. Student teams from over 600 universities and representing 150 countries will compete to develop innovative start-ups which seek to reimagine education, in order to reach ten million children, aged 0-6 over the next five years who reside in urban slums and beyond. The winner will be awarded one million dollars in seed capital, along with resources to scale worldwide.

Since its inception in 2009, the Hult Prize has launched some of the most disruptive start-ups in the social enterprise sector including India's largest loyalty and rewards program targeting the urban poor (m.Paani), the largest solar light distributor in Africa (SunnyMoney) and the fastest growing company in the insect agriculture sector (Aspire Food Group), a start-up that the UN called, "a company whose time has come and has a chance to eliminate poverty."

Last month at the 10^th annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, President Bill Clinton named NanoHealth, a team from the Indian School of Business, as the 2014 Hult Prize winning start-up. NanoHealth was selected and announced by a live judging committee comprised of President Bill Clinton, Muhammad Yunus (Nobel laureate), Dr. Sanjay Gupta (CNN), Fadi Ghandour (Aramex), Ashish Thakkar (Mara Group) and Kathleen Rogers (Earth Day). Working towards solving the challenge of the proliferation of non-communicable diseases in urban slums, NanoHealth created a mobile technology which reduces diagnostics costs by nearly 100x. The start-up has paired their door-to-door diagnostics capabilities with a US$4 per month micro-insurance program, creating India's largest slum-based EMR system and disease landscape map.

President Bill Clinton, who has supported the Hult Prize since inception in 2009, has described the Hult Prize in TIME Magazine as, "one of the top 5 ideas that are changing the world." He has gone on to say, "I love the Hult Prize, because it is a wonderful example of the creative cooperation needed to build a world with shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity, and each year I look forward to seeing the many outstanding ideas the competition produces."

Founded only five years ago by Hult International Business School alumnus Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Prize Foundation has fast tracked its way to the top, as the largest millennial movement for social impact in the world. The competition for the Hult Prize is the world's largest international student competition with events hosted in over 100 cities globally each year. Regional Finals take place in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai and on-line, with a final USD1 million round held in New York City, hosted by President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.

"We are mobilizing thousands of young entrepreneurs who are collectively spending over 2 million man hours each year on solving the world's most pressing issues through a business lens. Endorsements from partners like Clinton, Yunus and H.E. Sh. Nahyan have really cemented our seat at the international social entrepreneurship table and we are pleased to be disrupting the sector. Our global reach is unmatched with hundreds of established university chapters and access to nearly every college student and idea on the planet," says Ahmad Ashkar, CEO of Hult Prize.

Applications are now open and students can apply online at hultprize.org

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About Hult Prize Foundation

The Hult Prize Foundation is the world's largest start-up accelerator for social entrepreneurship and millennial movement for social impact. Founded in 2009 by Hult International Business School alumnus Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Prize is the world's largest student competition and the planet's largest crowd-sourcing platform for social good. Events are hosted in over 100 cities around the world each year, with regional finals taking place in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai and on-line. The final round takes place at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City, hosted by President Bill Clinton.

The mission of the Hult Prize Foundation is to mobilize and empower the next generation of social entrepreneurs. The Hult Prize has been funded and supported by the Hult family since its inception in 2009 and sponsored by the Hult International Business School and run in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. For more information, please visit www.hultprize.org.

About The Clinton Global Initiative

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is an initiative of Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation that convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, CGI members have made more than 2,500 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $87.9 billion.

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SOURCE Hult Prize Foundation