The Hult Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious student entrepreneurship competitions, returned to IIT Roorkee with renewed energy and ambition. Offering $1 million in funding to the most impactful student startup, this year’s challenge called upon participants to develop solutions aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pushing teams to think beyond the classroom and build ventures with real-world, lasting change.

Building the Foundation: Knowledge Sessions and Expert Insights

The On-Campus journey kicked off well before the competition day, with a carefully curated series of pre-event sessions designed to equip participants with the knowledge and perspective needed to craft compelling, grounded pitches.

On January 17, 2026, sustainability expert Shweta Yadav, Senior Manager at Nuvama Group and Sustainability Consultant, delivered an online guest lecture titled “Inside a Sustainability Report: What Companies Get Wrong (and How to Fix It)”. The session offered participants a sharp, insider look at how organizations approach and often mishandle sustainability reporting, and what truly impactful, SDG-aligned thinking looks like in practice. It was an eye-opening session that helped teams sharpen the sustainability angle of their ideas.

Learning from Those Who’ve Been There: The Mentorship Session

On February 18, 2026, participants were treated to an exclusive mentorship session titled “What to Do. What to Avoid.” featuring Kunal Shaw (EPH’25) and Ritik Payak (EE’25), Co-Founders at Protoncraft Innovations and veterans of the Hult Prize 2024 competition. Having navigated the competition themselves and made it to the finale, Kunal and Ritik brought candid, first-hand guidance on refining business models, surviving the Q&A rounds, and avoiding the common pitfalls that trip up even the most promising teams. The session was invaluable for participants looking to bridge the gap between a good idea and a winning pitch.

The On-Campus Round: Ideas Take the Stage

The culmination of weeks of preparation arrived on February 21, 2026, as teams stepped up to present their ventures to a panel of distinguished judges. Each pitch was followed by a rigorous Q&A session that tested not just the idea, but its feasibility, scalability, and real-world impact. The energy in the room was a testament to the months of effort poured in by every team.

After a highly competitive and thought-provoking day of pitches, the judges deliberated and announced the top three teams:

🥇 1st Place: Ecovion 🥈 2nd Place: Panchposh 🥉 3rd Place: Indian Ocean Power

The Champions: Ecovion

Ecovion tackled one of Indian agriculture’s most overlooked problems: fertilizer waste. Plants absorb only 30% of applied urea, costing farmers ₹1,500 per acre every year. Their MOF-based controlled delivery system releases nutrients gradually over 30 to 45 days, aligned with crop growth, with no microplastics involved. Ecovion will now represent IIT Roorkee in further rounds.

The Road Ahead

Ecovion’s win is more than a competition result. It is a reminder of what student entrepreneurship can achieve when backed by rigorous science, real empathy for the end user, and the will to reimagine systems that have long been taken for granted. As they prepare for the regional stage, the entire IIT Roorkee community cheers them on. The Hult Prize On-Campus 2026 was, above all, a celebration of bold thinking and sustainable ambition. It showed, once again, that the next generation of changemakers is already at work.