Bridges to Business Impactathon

Anthea Mudanye ’23, Anthony Eduafo ’23, Emmanuel Fiagbe ’24, and Hamza Ibrahim ’23

B2B Impactathon: Incubating Ideas to Change the World

Excerpted from an article by Nagisa Smalheiser ‘21

Cotton farming releases 220 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Manufacturing cotton fabrics uses 132 million metric tons of coal and nearly nine trillion liters of water. With climate change contributing to natural disasters, better options are urgently needed.

A four-student team* from Soka University has a solution: replace cotton fiber with the stems of banana plants. Their idea, The Tooke Project, named for the Luganda word for banana, won top prize at this year’s Bridges to Business Impactathon, an entrepreneurial workshop and business pitch competition.

Banana plants require less water, are grown without chemical fertilizers, and emit far less carbon dioxide. The group’s proposed project will employ widowed Ugandan women to create sustainable fabric. Uganda is the secondbiggest producer of banana fiber, after India. While some companies already make banana fiber textiles, The Tooke Project’s proposal would lower production costs.

The fourth annual Impactathon was held online January 8th-10th, allowing participants and judges from around the world to connect. Hosted by Soka’s Bridges to Business program, Impactathon brought together nine teams, each including at least one SUA student or alumnus, to develop their ideas and business models.

Led by Neetal Parekh, founder and CEO of Innov8social, the workshop pushed participants to map social problems, brainstorm impact-driven solutions, and design business plans. Participants also attended “impact talks” by successful social entrepreneurs in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and public health in addition to working on their own projects. At the end of the weekend, participants pitched ideas to potential investors, advisors, and mentors who gave feedback and awarded cash prizes.

Five judges with decades of shared experience in the entrepreneurial and private sectors evaluated the ideas based on problem identification, potential for social impact, and inclusivity. The Tooke Project hit all those marks, and the team members each brought a different perspective. Eduafo is passionate about alleviating environmental pollution and volunteers for LDG Ghana, a non-profit in his home country that seeks to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Growing up in Uganda, Mudanye has seen how women, particularly widows, are poorly treated, with little access to economic stability and financial literacy. Ghana native Ibrahim has also witnessed how widows are dehumanized after their husbands die and is motivated to fight this cruel inequity. Fiagbe, also from Ghana, loves fashion but wants to address that industry’s status as the second-largest global polluter. “Our team came up with a business plan that would make fast fashion sustainable,” Fiagbe said. “The Impactathon made me ask: How will I create actionable change doing something I love?”

The team won a $1,000 prize and, along with four of the other Impactathon teams, continued to develop their ideas through Soka B2B’s partnership with UC Irvine’s New Venture competition, where teams can qualify to win up to $20,000 of funding. See facing article for results.

“Witnessing the personal and professional growth of these Soka students as they embraced the demands of the competition workshops was beyond inspiring

Soka Students Win at Annual Startup Competition

Contributed by Nagisa Smalheiser ‘21

Soka students’ innovative thinking and commitment to social responsibility made them winners at University of California Irvine’s Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship $100,000 startup competition.

SUA students participated on teams that swept the top three places in the semifinals of the Social Enterprise category. Two teams advanced to the finals and finished first and second.

Anjan Rana Magar ’23 was a member of the winning project, Circular, which received a $7,500 award for its idea to disrupt the cycle of food waste and hunger.

Magar, who is concentrating on Environmental Studies, helped develop a service that picks up food waste from restaurants, composts the waste with earthworms, and uses to it fertilize a vertical farm growing organic produce, which is then distributed back to its partner restaurants.

Second-place Tooke Fabrics, which proposes creating sustainable fabric from raw materials used in banana production in Uganda, is the concept of Anthea Mudanye ’23, Anthony Eduafo ’23, Hamza Ibrahim ’23, and Emmanuel Fiagbe ’24. They received $2,500 from the UCI competition and previously won $1,000 in Soka’s Impactathon in January.

Marlen Riviere’s Bconomy finished third in the semifinals. Riviere, who concentrated on International Studies and graduated this year, is creating an online app and website to connect Blackowned businesses and socially conscious consumers.

“Witnessing the personal and professional growth of these Soka students as they embraced the demands of the competition workshops was beyond inspiring,” said Mary Patrick Kavanaugh, director of Soka’s Bridges to Business program, which helps students and alumni connect their liberal arts education into the world of social impact, entrepreneurship, and business.