After winning the final round at the Hult Prize Southeast Asia Regional Summit 2021, team LiZi – the representative from British University Vietnam (currently renamed as Peel Us) will compete with excellent representatives around the world at the Global Accelerator. 

This April, the final round of the Hult Prize Southeast Asia Regional Summit 2021 took place in an atmosphere full of inspiration and ideas with the participation of teams from Southeast Asia. Peel Us team consisting of four BUV students with the idea of ​​“fruit peel powder” is one of the two teams representing Southeast Asia to attend the Global Accelerator and compete with outstanding representatives from five continents around the world. 

LiZi (currently renamed as Peel Us) is a representative coming from BUV

Conveying the message of “recycling, envisioning and defining food for the future”, Peel Us impressed the judges with powder products made from peel of fruits that are familiar to Vietnamese people such as mangos, bananas, and pitayas. They also have high nutritional content and satisfy the health requirements of consumers. Instead of making apps, websites or service-oriented activities, Peel Us chose to make real products and bring them for the judges to try directly at the contest. With distinctive taste, aroma, and high nutritional content, the team deservedly won a ticket to the global semi-finals. 

After over 6 months of coming up with ideas, analysing models, presenting activities and testing, and utilising the best startup business models, the competition teams including the Vietnamese representative – Peel Us will continue to enter the Global Accelerator round this coming July. The competition will feature representatives from countries around the world, accompanied by 60 Hult Prize coordinator alongside more than 80 experts, mentors and coaches. The teams will participate in training sessions with international high-profile industry experts and professors within the programme to optimise the social benefits that the projects aim to address. 

As an international training programme in London, UK, the Global Accelerator round will take place across 4 months and have such activities as: participating in training sessions, courses under guidance of leading experts, making presentations for mock fundraising, connecting and learning with potential startups, making prototype products and testing products in reality. Based on the training results, six teams will qualify for the Global Finals held at the UN headquarters in New York, USA. 

Speaking at the official launch of the Global Accelerator, Mr. Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of Hult Prize shared: “the Hult Prize returns to the roots of the human experience. “Food for Good” represents living creatures, culture, environment, and human connection. We are excited to be able to bring breakthrough startup ideas, build a strong community, and create numerous values that have lasting impacts on the agriculture industry.” 

Hult Prize 2021 challenge of “Food for Good”

The Hult Prize is an annual prize held for students around the world which is aimed towards social entrepreneurship, sponsored by the United Nations and former US President Bill Clinton, and has a prize value of USD 1 million. This is a very promising playground for young people who are passionate about social entrepreneurship to promote their creativity and apply innovations in business. The contest has encouraged innovative, breakthrough business ideas and created an attractive platform to facilitate startup activities for the young generation. The message of the Prize is to link economic development with sharing community benefits, improving people’s lives and thereby building a foundation for sustainable development of organisations on the basis of sustainable development of the whole society.