Four Indian Americans are among the winners of  the Harvard Business School new venture competition that awards prizes worth over $3,00,000 to new and innovative business and social impact startups conceptualized by its students and alums.

Harvard MBA 2014 student Amrita Saigal won the grand prize in the 'Social Enterprise' category at the 18th Harvard Business School New Venture Competition for her venture 'Saathi', which she cofounded with Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu.

Saathi provides affordable sanitary pads made from waste banana tree fibre to women in rural India. Saigal and Kagetsu, who both hold mechanical engineering degrees from MIT, received a $50,000 prize at the competition, which supports both students and alumni launching new business and social impact ventures inspired by "belief that one simple idea can change everything".

Saathi also got the audience choice award through an electronic crowd vote.

The winner in the business track category was the start-up 'Alfred', being launched by Saurabh Mahajan, Marcela Sapone and Jess Beck.

Alfred is a concierge service individuals can use for their daily and weekly tasks, including dry cleaning, house cleaning, groceries, laundry, and more. The Alfred team also won $50,000.

The runner-up in the social enterprise track was 'Tomato Jos' founded by MBA students Mira Mehta and Mike Lawrence. 'Tomato Jos' is a vertically integrated tomato processing company that helps small farmers in Nigeria grow tomatoes that can then be made into tomato paste.

In the business category, 'Booya Fitness' founded by MBA student Prita Kumar won the runner-up award and a $25,000 cash prize. The venture is an on-demand video platform featuring workouts created by the industry's best boutique gyms and instructors.

York Street Partners, an investment banking firm in Sri Lanka with team members Hiran Embuldeniya MBA 2005, Nayana Mawilmada MBA 2005 and Jayamin Pelpola MBA 2010 won the prize for the greatest impact and most innovative alumni venture.

The capstone event of the HBS's expansive offerings in entrepreneurship, this year's competition attracted 150 Harvard MBA candidates as well as students from six other Harvard graduate schools.

It was wonderful to see the event open with a creative dance themed on innovation. April 29 is International dance day and having this touch made it very special.

As I spoke to the winners what impressed me most was their passion and dedication to make a difference. Whether it was bringing pads to rural India, improving the lives of Nigerian farmers, bringing fitness options to tier-2 cities in the US or improving the economy of Sri Lanka, entrepreneurs were committed to making a difference. To see so many young women and men committed to making a difference was heart-warming. Lokvani wishes all of them the very best of luck.

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