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Past Finalists and Winners

The prospectuses and presentations of Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge finalists are not only a great reference for participating students, but are an evolving record of the evolution of the field of sustainable finance, and, in some cases, early iterations of what have now become successful ventures. 

Click through each year below to see the prospectuses and final presentations that were deemed the strongest in that year of the competition.

2011  •  2012  •  2013  •  2014  •  2015  •  2016  •  2017  •  2018  •  2019

2020  •  2021  •  2022 •  2023

Judge Business School, Cambridge University

2022 Winner
Coast Haven Brokerage

Coast Haven Brokerage would be a platform-based brokerage connecting beneficiaries of ecosystems of mangroves in climate-driven storm-risk areas with insurers, investors and project developers/restoration experts with the goal of facilitating the deployment of parametric insurance to help protect and restore mangrove forests.

The Fletcher School, Tufts University

2022 Runner-up
GOAL Fund

To creatively finance the acquisition and restoration of land surrounding decommissioned oil and gas wells, the GOAL fund proposes to leverage private equity and carbon credits to plug and remediate these areas.

University of St. Gallen

2022 Finalist
Black Soldier Flies Convertible Minibonds

The Black Soldier Flies team sets forth a convertible minibond, a financial vehicle embedded in an operative framework designed to help incentivize the expansion of farming black soldier flies, boost innovation, and build economies of knowledge to lay the foundation for expanding a new market in insect protein.

Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi

2022 Finalist
Building Bricks Securitized-Carbon and Kiln Loan Fund

Building Bricks is a concept for an emissions-based securitized loan fund with diversified cash flows that would seek to reduce resource inefficiency and pollution caused by India's brick kilns by addressing the funding gap and incentivizing kiln owners to adopt cleaner technology.

American University of Cairo

2022 Finalist
Carbo-Lease

Carbo-Lease proposes an asset-backed security comprised of leases for small- and medium-sized enterprises developing carbon sequestration projects and technologies.

University of Edinburgh Business School

2022 Finalist
Circular Blade Fund

Focusing on the opportunity to re-use and up-cycle wind turbine blades, the Circular Blade Fund has crafted an approach that involves a leveraged leasing and private equity fund that would help prevent wind turbine blades being wasted and put into landfills.

Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

2022 Finalist
Cluster Cafe

Cluster Café is proposed as a hybrid debt fund focused on helping to solve supply chain challenges in Papua New Guinea to boost specialty coffee production, increase farmer income, and grow small coffee businesses.

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

2022 Finalist
Crop Catalyst Fund

The Crop Catalyst team sets forth a revenue-based redeemable equity instrument that would provide flexible, long-term financing to help West African agribusinesses grow their value-added processing capacity.

Kozminski University

2022 Finalist
Green Hydrogen Fund (GHF)

To help expedite the execution of net-zero climate strategies by investing in the green hydrogen technologies, the Green Hydrogen Fund team envisions using private equity to innovate a financial solution.

Schulich School of Business, York University

2022 Finalist
Indigenous Sustainability Fund

The Indigenous Sustainability Fund crafted a concept for private credit fund focused on helping improve access to reliable, sustainable energy for indigenous communities.

Columbia Business School & Yale School of Management

2022 Finalist
Methane Minus Fund

Conceptualized by the Methane Minus team, this multi-asset venture capital fund would seek to reduce cattle farming’s methane emissions by financing technological advancement and farming operations in Asparagopsis Taxiformis growth and cattle feed production.

University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business

2022 Finalist
Private Mortgage Fund

A private loan fund proposed by the Private Mortgage Fund team would aim to increase access to homeownership by providing small-dollar mortgage loans that have been historically underutilized by traditional banking institutions.

Questrom School of Business, Boston University

2022 Finalist
SWIF - Seaweed Investment Fund

The SWIF team concept is for a private loan fund that would provide working capital loans to seaweed harvesters to help reduce damage to the environment and tourism industry caused by sargassum blooms throughout the Caribbean.

University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business

2022 Finalist
Series CO2 Fund

The Series CO2 Fund ‘s vision would use a venture capital approach to provide funding for growth-stage carbon capture and storage ventures in exchange for future carbon credits rather than a traditional share of the companies' equity.

National University of Singapore

2022 Finalist
Supernovae

Supernovae’s students have crafted the concept for a private mezzanine sustainability-linked loan fund with embedded warrants to provide financing to Zambian green metal mining companies.

Johns Hopkins University & University of Chicago

2022 Finalist
Volumetric Injection Payments for Carbon Sequestration

This student team crafted a strategy in which pre-purchase carbon credits from unbuilt carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects catalyzes the flow of private capital and drive the development CCS technologies.

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