Entries in this year’s best business school student start-up category highlight a new generation of entrepreneurs ready to tackle many global crises, including energy insecurity, environmental degradation, water treatment, and healthcare financing, with bolder approaches. The projects presented by today’s business students share a targeted commitment to sustainability, approaching today’s big problems as opportunities to create impactful change.
The founders’ early displays of resilience, persistence, and creativity are even more critical. They plan to scale their initiatives while navigating the intricate regulatory, logistical, and cultural challenges.
Whether it is global inequalities, food insecurity, or beyond – the founders are proving that sustainability and business can go hand in hand.
Rural India Goes Green
Zor, co-founded by Harvard MBA students Rea Savla and Vishesh Mehta, is tackling rural India’s energy crisis with a battery-sharing solution that provides farmers lacking electricity with modular, pay-per-use batteries that run on grid or solar power. Zor aims to help these farmers cut costs, boost farmers’ productivity, and reduce their carbon emissions.
Savla says the goal is to reduce energy expenses and sustainably improve livelihoods.
Pilots in Odisha and Jharkhand proved successful, with farmers quickly adopting the service due to its convenience and cost savings. However, Zor faced challenges, particularly misconceptions about subsidized energy solutions and navigating rural infrastructure gaps.
The MBA students worked hard to build trust in local communities. Salva stated, “In rural areas, solutions don’t come from directories or online platforms; they come from relationships.”
Looking to the future, Zor hopes to expand its technology by creating lightweight, stackable batteries for diverse uses, including irrigation and electric vehicles. Savla and Mehta also aim for at least 50 percent of the project’s field staff to be women, creating income opportunities for this traditionally marginalized group.
Helping Healthcare to Access Capital
Christian Nwachukwu’s 10mg project uses an AI-powered credit scoring platform to enable lenders to provide fast, collateral-free loans to healthcare providers in emerging markets, ultimately improving patient care. This graduate of Aston Business School describes 10mg as offering real-time, accurate assessments of creditworthiness to overcome barriers such as high interest rates and lengthy approval processes.
Having previously worked for a pharmaceutical company, Nwachukwu stated, “I experienced first-hand the lengthy loan approval processes that often take months, high interest rates exceeding 30 percent, and collateral requirements that made financing inaccessible.”
According to the graduate, over 90 percent of Africa’s population lacks adequate health insurance, and it is estimated that a lack of financing options for healthcare providers has contributed to a loss of more than six percent of GDP annually.
10mg aims to tackle this issue by developing SaaS APIs—cloud-based tools that enable communication—and creating partnerships with UK lenders Fintech Farm, Plen, and Blend to promote sustainable lending practices to African providers.
Recycling Eyewear
MSC international business student at IESEG, Lille Ophélie Vanbremeersch, is working on a project to transform the eyewear industry by giving eyewear a second life. Her venture, Zac, collects unused eyewear, reconditions the frames, and sells them at affordable prices.
Vanbremeersch focuses on sustainability and social impact at Zac, stating, “Our aim is to be the leading solution for the circular economy in optics … and to make refurbished products a truly accessible alternative to new ones.”
Today, over 250 opticians, including the chain Écouter Voir, are on board with Zac, and there are plans to expand the Zac Collection into 3,000 stores by 2028.
Vanbremeersch added that Zac offers 20 renowned brand frames, and opticians can choose from pre-designed selections or create their own by selecting the frame styles.
“Convincing opticians and ensuring second-hand frames are refurbished like new ones have been major challenges,” says Vanbremeersch.
She adds that Zac’s prices are 40-70 percent below new equivalents to stay competitive.
Addressing Water Treatment
According to IMD MBA graduate Jasper Schakel, the chemicals used to treat water are running out. To address water treatment, Schakel co-founded Chemical Innovations in Water Industries (CIWI), which aims to transform water treatment using innovative electrochemical technology.
Shackle and co-founder Erik Kraaijeveld, an engineer from Delft University, tested their electrocoagulation technology during a pilot project in Ghana. They endured harsh conditions, extreme heat, and material scarcity.
CIWI technology produces metal-based coagulation, phosphate, and hydrogen sulfide removal agents. With the support of TU Delft and IMD, the co-founders honed their system to make water treatment agents on-site, reducing the need for traditional chemicals like iron chloride.
“We don’t want to be disruptive technology; we want to be sustainable technology,” says Schakel. “Our goal is to create solutions that are easy to implement within existing infrastructure, seamlessly fitting into the systems already in place.”
