Saïd Business School MBA students have won the prestigious final of The Turner MIINT (Impact Investing Network & Training) at The Wharton School in America.
Sneha Kogta, Twinkle Malhan, Reantha Pillay, Aditi Agrawal and Abhinav Verma won the Moelis Family Foundation Prize after pitching for consideration of a $50,000 (£40,000) investment in Indian-based medical devices company Sunfox Technologies. It is the first time the Oxford Saïd team has won since the competition was founded in 2011.
Sunfox Technologies was founded in 2016 and uses technology to generate simple, user-friendly reports that can be used to track cardiac health outcomes in remote areas without the need for a medical specialist. It is now eligible for a $50,000 debt/equity impact investment.
MBA students can take part in the Turner MIINT impact investing training and competition alongside their studies. More than 40 schools worldwide teaching MBA enter and seven teams, including Oxford Saïd, competed in the final.
Oxford MIINT co-chairs Aditi Phadnis and Sunny Ubale said: ‘The win is the cherry on top of an incredible year of MIINT at Oxford Saïd. This year, we increased access to 45 students, and held structured workshops and 1:1 mentoring as learning opportunities alongside the MIINT curriculum.
‘The comprehensiveness of these efforts and the students’ commitment to purposeful businesses translated to an incredibly competitive MIINT Oxford Finals, progressing to the global final. We also thank Turner MIINT and Wharton ESG Initiative on their efforts to create investment opportunities for deserving social entrepreneurs and creating a talent pool of able impact investing leaders.
‘The year, with this resounding victory, is a testament to the cohort's commitment to leading at the nexus of business and impact and feel we should all share in the success of this overall Turner MIINT experience.’
Aditi expressed thanks to Oxford Saïd Associate Fellows Gayle Peterson and Peter Hinton, alumni Carolina Douek and Davinia Cogan, Visiting Fellow Nick Andreou and alumna Alma Guitterrez, as well as Tilkesh Purohit and Arushi Das.
Turner MIINT, a partnership between Bridges Impact Foundation and Wharton Social Impact Initiative, is a year-long programme designed to give students at business and graduate schools hands-on education in impact investing. It examines integrating social and environmental impact into the investment process as students source and assess early-stage impact venture capital deals.