An entrepreneurship hub within the Michael F. Price College of Business has teamed up with the Hult Prize Competition to encourage social entrepreneurship and cultivate solutions concerning social issues around the globe.
The partnership between Startup OU and the Hult Prize Competition will expand entrepreneurship in the state and on OU’s campus. Startup OU will lead a university-wide pitch competition for the first qualifying round of the worldwide competition. The winning team will move forward to compete against other worldwide ventures for a spot in the Hult Global Accelerator in London.
The Hult Prize is an annual multi-round competition that challenges young people across the globe to aid in solving pressing social issues by creating businesses. Every year, more than 100,000 students from countries across the world join the competition aiming to create impactful startups that target the annual challenge that aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The winning team will receive $1 million in funding to support their work and ideas.
“Startup OU is a leading entrepreneurial support organization (ESO) that launched in 2021 to catalyze and champion entrepreneurship at the University of Oklahoma and across the central Oklahoma region,” Dayten Israel, Startup OU's director, wrote in an email to OU Daily.
Startup OU is an entrepreneurship hub that promotes students innovations. The organization serves as a launch point for students looking to connect and begin startups. Startup OU will allow the university to join an international network of partner universities such as Yale, Syracuse and Harvard and host on-site competitions as part of the year-long, globe-spanning challenge.
“The Hult Prize offers a unique opportunity to engage students across the university, especially those who may not believe entrepreneurship is a viable opportunity for themselves,” Israel wrote.
The Hult Prize at OU competition will take place on Feb. 28 at the Tom Love Innovation Hub. Registration information is found here.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
