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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  •  2024
  •  2025  •  2026

University of Chicago, Duke University

2026 Winner
AAA Fund

This blended finance credit facility is designed to restore Indonesia's degraded coastal mangrove ponds through community cooperatives, generating returns from blue carbon credits and aggregated silvofishery shrimp sales.

Duke University

2026 Runner-Up
GeoServe

Using a Build-Own-Transfer model, this multi-stage capital platform is designed to de-risk and scale district-level geothermal heating and cooling infrastructure for energy-insecure low-income communities in the US.

Imperial College London

2026 Third Place
Amazonia Yield Bond

Aiming to break the cycle of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, this securitization is structured to finance agroforestry by aggregating asset-backed loans to smallholder agricultural cooperatives and generating returns from carbon credits and sustainable timber.

INSEAD

2026 Finalist
Blue Barrier Capital

This proposed blue bond converts sargassum seaweed overgrowth offshore in the Caribbean into saleable bioproducts, funding operations through a tourism levy that turns an ecological liability into a revenue-generating solution.

Columbia University

2026 Finalist
Everflow Capital Africa

An evergreen private credit fund would provide short-term receivables factoring to NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa to bridge donor payment delays, enabling development programs to continue uninterrupted.

Cornell University

2026 Finalist
Frontline Capital

Using loans and shared-savings agreements to help expand local health clinics in underserved US communities, this blended private credit proposal earns returns as better primary care reduces costly emergency visits.

Tufts University

2026 Finalist
Mahila Textile Accelerator

A blended private credit fund would use India’s Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) to provide collateral-free working capital to women-owned textile micro-enterprises, shifting credit risk from sellers to institutional buyers.

Nanyang Technological University

2026 Finalist
Mekong Resilience Fund

A blended finance vehicle would fund climate-resilient infrastructure in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta through performance-linked “success fees” from global corporate off-takers whose supply chains depend on the region.

EDHEC Business School

2026 Finalist
NO3 Impact Fund

This pay-for-success structure is designed for farmers in Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate to adopt precision agriculture and reduce nitrate groundwater contamination, with investor returns tied to verified environmental and health outcomes.

Columbia University

2026 Finalist
Nusantara Resilient Capital

Utilizing a fully collateralized parametric catastrophe bond, this proposal transfers flood risk in Sumatra, Indonesia to capital markets while ring-fencing excess margins for upstream reforestation.

Northwestern University

2026 Finalist
Re-Husk Fund

Creating a circular economy to benefit farmers and consumer packaged goods companies, this fund would finance construction facilities in the Midwestern US that convert excess corn husks into sustainable fiber packaging.

INSEAD

2026 Finalist
Sea Change Capital

A closed-end blended finance vehicle would simultaneously fund port bunkering infrastructure and vessel retrofits on the Singapore–Shanghai corridor, contractually locking both together to remove barriers to maritime decarbonization.

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