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HEC Lausanne students at the 2021 World's Challenge Challenge final
Each year, Western University invites teams of students to present unique ideas at the World's Challenge Challenge. The 2021 competition took place from June 7 to 10 online, with more than 15 universities participating. HEC Lausanne (UNIL) had the opportunity to participate in the final with its team of 4 Master students thanks to their Munay project.
For the past 7 years, Western University has held the World's Challenge Challenge. More than 30 teams compete each year by presenting their unique ideas to a panel of academic and community leaders, allowing them to develop various skills, and encouraging them to take action on global issues and challenges. This year, 4 students from HEC Lausanne won the internal UNIL competition, allowing them to qualify for the finals alongside 9 other qualified projects. The competition was won by the University of Alberta.
Martin Ruilova, Bruno Ayllon, Valeria Medinaceli (Master in Finance) and Valeria Díaz Romero (Master in Management) defended the project "Munay", a community of women helping women. Through its impact platform, Munay aims to provide visibility, knowledge and funds to Bolivian female entrepreneurs to help them achieve their goals and finance their short-term capital requirements. With Munay, Sustainable Development Goal 5 will be supported in Bolivia and scale to Latin America through partnerships with organizations that promote gender equality.
Martin Ruilova, Bruno Ayllon, Valeria Medinaceli and Valeria Díaz Romero, how did you experience the competition?
"The competition allowed us to meet different social entrepreneurs and know more about their ideas to generate a positive impact and fight for a more equitable, fair, and sustainable world. We had the opportunity to hear from worldwide experts in the social entrepreneurial ecosystem and make our way to the Global Final, where our pitch was presented to a panel of specialists. Even though we didn't arrive to the podium, the boost of confidence motivated us to keep pursuing our project. "
What will be the next step in this project?
"Currently, we are validating the first version of our Minimum Viable Product with Bolivian female entrepreneurs, we are working on research in which our White Paper will be based, and, in parallel, we are looking for opportunities to enter to accelerator programs, such as UCreate3. All of these steps will help us with the implementation of the idea in Bolivia, which will continue after our graduation. "
The whole school congratulates the team on this great participation and wishes them every success with their project!