What happens when you put a challenge in front of the brightest young minds across Asia and ask them to solve real-world problems?

You get ideas that are bold, brilliant, and deeply local, with global potential.

That’s exactly what went down at the Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge (SAEC) 2025, a regional innovation sprint designed to help students flex their entrepreneurial skills, build global confidence, and pitch for impact.

Delivered by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and powered by HEX, SAEC 2025 brought together student innovators from across Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India to tackle real issues using tech, creativity, and a whole lot of passion.

From public speaking nerves to pitch-perfect presentations, students explored design thinking, startup strategy, and cross-border teamwork, then pitched their ideas for real-world change.

And now… it’s time to meet the winning teams who stole the show. 

🇧🇩 Bangladesh: Team AwareHer

School: The Aga Khan Academy Dhaka

Students: Fairooz Saeeda, Wahseka Lanee, Alijah Nusaibah Islam

Team AwareHer took on a topic that’s often left unspoken, women’s health literacy.

Their pitch? A tech-enabled platform that provides accessible, culturally relevant education and support for young women around menstrual health and wellbeing.

It’s smart. It’s brave. It’s purpose-led innovation at its best, and it’s exactly the kind of impact we love to see at SAEC.

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka: Team TriXel

School: Trinity College Kandy

Students: Rehan Anandakumar, M.C. Senhas, D.C.D. Jayasinghe

Team TriXel brought a sustainability-first mindset to the challenge, building a solution to tackle environmental issues at the community level.

Their concept focused on increasing recycling awareness and developing digital tools to support green habits, empowering young people to take action and shift behaviour through tech.

These aren’t just school projects, they’re future-facing solutions, built with care.

🇮🇳 India: Team Digipact

School: Sangam School of Excellence

‍Students: Tanishq Jain, Arham Jain, Samradhi Singhal

Team Digipact came through with a powerful idea rooted in empathy, logistics, and action.

Their pitch? A hyper-local food surplus redistribution platform that rescues food before it’s wasted and redirects it to communities in need.

It’s a beautifully simple, highly scalable idea that hits two global issues, hunger and waste, in one student-led solution.

Why SAEC Matters (A Lot)

The Study Australia Entrepreneurship Challenge isn’t just a pitch competition, it’s a launchpad for global thinkers.

Every student who participated got a taste of startup life: pitching under pressure, collaborating across borders, and turning a spark of an idea into something powerful.

Through HEX’s future-skills learning model and Austrade’s commitment to global education, SAEC equips students with the tools, mindset, and confidence to tackle real-world challenges, not someday, but today.

And judging by the quality of projects we saw, the future of South Asian innovation is very bright.

👉 Read more about how it all started in our SAEC launch blog.

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At HEX, we believe in learning by doing and in the power of global connection.

That’s why we were thrilled to partner with the legends at Austrade - Neha Grover, Vik Singh, Megha Gupta, and the wider crew - to support the next wave of international talent.

Shout out to Ashwin Chhaperia from the HEX team for championing these young founders from Day 1. 

And to all the young dreamers, builders, and problem-solvers out there: your ideas matter. The world needs them. And we see you.