Ahmedabad : A team consisting of four MBA students from the flagship postgraduate program of IIM Ahmedabad – Aayush Gupta, Arunabh Saxena, Kartik Mittal, Krati Agarwal – emerged victorious in a two-stage impact investing competition, organized by University College London. Blackrock, an investment management company, was the prize sponsor alongside other partners such as Bloomberg, Impact Invest, Impact Ventures and Robeco.

This multi-phase event drew exceptional students from select universities, including London School of Economics, University of Warwick, Stockholm School of Economics, King’s College London, and others to participate in an impact investing case challenge. Participant teams were asked to develop an innovative, actionable, and strategic investment product providing maximum financial and social value in a pandemic affected world.

The competition started with presentations where experts from shared their professional experiences in impact investing to give participants a better understanding of the mindset and approach of an impact investor. Following that, the teams were given 60 minutes to prepare their solution. The event was held entirely virtually. From nearly a hundred and fifty participants, the Top 4 teams were selected to present their case to a panel of judges from the impact investment management teams Blackrock, Impact Invest and Robeco.

Caroline Brady, Vice President of Active Equity Impact Investing at Blackrock, appreciated the team’s perspectives and promised further engagement with the firm’s impact investing division. The achievement was the result of the quick thinking by the team and its innovative approach: “We narrowed down on the problem relatively sooner, and spent time in making our investment product more viable from an investor’s perspective,” says Kartik Mittal. The team was glad to have amalgamated their business acumen and financial skills with the social orientation required for impact investments.