Manolo Sanchez Prize
The Manolo Sanchez Prize will award $25,000 to a for-profit, nonprofit, or community-led initiative that aims to create and/or improve access to financial services for individuals in *underserved communities.
The Manolo Sanchez Prize will award $25,000 to a for-profit, nonprofit, or community-led initiative that aims to create and/or improve access to financial services for individuals in underserved* communities.
Preference will be given to solutions that democratize financial wellbeing, financial health, and/or financial inclusion services for individuals in an underserved community.
Examples include creating access to financial capital, wealth-building opportunities, and long-term financial infrastructure for individuals in an underserved community– whether through fintech, policy/advocacy, partnerships, financial education, or other approaches.
This infrastructure can include credit, insurance, payments and remittances, savings, and personal finance tools.
This prize intends to:
- Inspire global solutions promoting financial inclusion, democratizing financial access, and increasing financial infrastructure utilization.
- Stimulate innovative projects empowering financially underserved communities to improve their financial health and well-being.
- Generate interdisciplinary, cross-sector solutions developed by innovators from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.
- Educate innovators about how to transform an innovative idea into a successful reality.
In addition to the potential prize money, Startup Yale provides participants with constructive feedback from experienced professionals, mentorship from relevant experts, and chances to network with venture capital investors, nonprofit funders, and industry leaders.
The Manolo Sánchez Prize, sponsored by Manolo Sánchez (YC ’87), reflects his lifelong commitment to financial inclusion. After a 30-year career in finance—including serving as Chairman and CEO of BBVA Compass—Sánchez now teaches crypto and blockchain at Rice University and serves on several boards. His work centers on democratizing financial wellbeing and expanding access to underserved communities.
Judging Criteria
- Opportunity: The problem the venture or idea seeks to address is clearly defined, supported by data or lived experience, and affects individuals in an underserved community. The team must also clearly articulate the scale of the problem in an underserved community and how the prize will democratize the financial wellbeing, financial health, and financial inclusion services of an underserved community.
- Innovation: The idea is truly innovative. It presents a new model, product or service that fills a unique gap and/or applies an existing model to a new context.
- Traction & Engagement: There is some early evidence of traction or feasibility, such as user feedback, partnerships, pilot results, or stakeholder engagement that demonstrates potential for adoption and scale. We want to see what the team has learned so far about the problem, who they have been in contact with, and how their findings have led them to their venture or idea.
- Team: The team has the knowledge, skills, lived or professional experience, and commitment needed to execute effectively, including local or cross-sector partnerships relevant to the context
- Sustainability & Catalytic Potential: The prize funding and mentorship would be meaningful at this stage, in accelerating the venture’s growth, validation, or ability to achieve measurable impact.
Important Dates
January 27, 2026: Startup Yale Application Fest
February 2, 2026: Startup Yale application opens
February 12, 2026 at 5:00 pm EST: Startup Yale application deadline
March 6, 2026: Finalist announced.
April 10, 2026: Finalists participate in a live pitch event as part of Startup Yale.
Contact
Eunjoo Jung
Innovation Fellow, Tsai CITY
eunjoo.jung@yale.edu
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Important Dates
January 27, 2026: Startup Yale Application Fest
February 2, 2026: Startup Yale application opens
February 12, 2026 at 5:00 pm EST: Startup Yale application deadline
March 6, 2026: Finalist announced.
April 10, 2026: Finalists participate in a live pitch event as part of Startup Yale.Contact
Eunjoo Jung
Innovation Fellow, Tsai CITY
eunjoo.jung@yale.edu
*By underserved, we mean underbanked, underfunded, underinsured, or otherwise financially excluded
Past Winners
- 2025: Numanac (Dan Kelly, ARC ’25, Daniel Lee, James Fitzgerald, and Reem Kseibati) leverages AI-enabled Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to simplify farm knowledge management/decision-making, enhance operational efficiency, and empower farmers to derive actionable insights from data.
- 2024: Guideli (Oyebade (Bade) Adepegba SOM ’24 and Daniel Jayeoba) is solving the frustration that immigrants face in navigating complex immigration processes and settlement hurdles in their new countries.
- 2023: The Fines and Fees Freedom Fund ( Alejandra Uria Law ’23, Liam Grace- Flood SOM ’22, and Caela Murphy SOM ’23) is working to end debt-based incarceration through direct support of the lawyers and impacted people fighting the U.S. legal system’s criminalization of poverty.
- 2022: Midnight Oil Collective (Edwin Joseph MUS ’20, Frances Pollock MUS ’25, Sola Fadiran DRA ’22, Emily Roller YC ’07, and Allison Chu MUS ’25) is a venture studio that partners with artists, helping them build and scale transmedia franchises that have the potential to create outsized financial returns.
