MBA Impact Investing Competition at Wharton Triples in Size

The impact investing competition was held as part of the MBA Impact Investing Network & Training (MIINT) program, an experimental lab co-produced by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII) and specialist fund manager Bridges Ventures. The competition is the culmination of the MIINT program, in which students apply what they’ve learned in training modules taken over six months, by sourcing and conducting diligence on early stage impact investments and then pitching them to an industry panel for potential funding. In an effort to educate the next generation of business leaders in the growing field of impact investing, the finals held at Wharton also present a pipeline of talent and social enterprise investment opportunities for participants working in the field.

The growth of the MIINT program underscores the rising popularity of impact investing and social entrepreneurship in business education and, indeed, in business more broadly. Last year, Jacob Gray, senior director of the WSII, maintained that it was time to expand the program to meet rising demand, now that impact investing is at the cusp of broader market acceptance, particularly among millennials. Investors, for their part, are also growing more conscious of how business decisions create an impact that is wider than the bottom line alone, challenging business schools to better prepare students for this shift in mindset.