Aber students make regional finals for $1million Hult Prize

Three Aber students are in with a chance of winning a million dollars to launch their business.

Each year, the Hult Prize challenges student groups to create solutions for the world’s most pressing issues. The winner earns an investment of one million US dollars seed capital to launch their very own startup, and gets to shake former US President Bill Clinton’s hand.

The students Waqas and Ribatika want to represent Aber in London

Aber Uni, represented by Brandon Ribatika, Mohammed Waqas and Sohail Iqbal now made the London Regional Final by offering a convincing business model on tackling crowded urban spaces. In coming up with scalable, fast-growing social enterprises that double the income of 10 million people residing in such spaces and better connecting people, goods, services and capital, the team outdid competitors from all around the world.

The Welsh team was selected from an extensive pool of over 25,000 applications and are now one step closer to becoming part of what the Hult Prize calls “The Next Wave of Social Entrepreneurs”. The Hult Prize challenge is known for selecting game-changing startup companies on sustainable business models by challenging them in the world’s largest student competition.

US$1,000,000 to change the world

The next obstacle will be to compete against the 63 remaining teams in the London regional finals in March 2016. The ultimate goal is to then compete against a global range of teams, selected from Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai.

Successful competitor Brendon Lee Ribatika told us: “I think the Hult Prize is a prestigious student competition, it’s like the Nobel Peace prize for students. When I heard about the opportunity it gives for students to get involved in social enterprise and be in chance to win a handsome amount too.

“I simply could not wait to audition. It’s a massive honour to represent the university at the regional finals of the competition. It’s something I can put in my CV and take that experience into the workplace.”