Four Indians are among the winners of a Harvard Business School competition that awards prizes to innovative business and social impact start-ups.
Harvard MBA student Amrita Siagal won the grand prize in the ‘Social Enterprise’ category for her venture ‘Saathi,’ which she co-founded with Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu. Saathi provides affordable sanitary pads made from waste banana tree fibre to women in rural India. Siagal and Kagetsu received a $50,000 prize.
The winner in the business track category was the start-up ‘Alfred’, launched by Saurabh Mahajan, Marcela Sapone and Jess Beck. Alfred is a concierge service individuals can use for tasks including housekeeping.
ADVERTISEMENT
The runner up in the social enterprise track was ‘Tomato Jos,’ a tomato processing company, founded by MBA students Mira Mehta and Mike Lawrence. In the business category, ‘Booya Fitness’ founded by MBA student Pritar Kumar won the runner-up award.