IMD has announced the winner of its 2025 MBA Venture Award, which supports students ready to launch new ventures after graduation.
Somerset Jarvis will receive 100,000 CHF in funding, along with mentorship and strategic guidance from a panel of successful IMD entrepreneurs and industry experts. Now in its fourth year, the award provides funding and guidance to IMD MBAs ready to launch ventures immediately after graduation, helping them to bring innovative business ideas to market.
As Jarvis explained, buildings are responsible for about 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with construction materials as a major driver. Concrete alone is so carbon-intensive that, if it were a country, it would be the third largest in terms of CO2 emissions.
Her venture, C³, is a Revit-integrated software tool that optimizes building geometry and material choices to cut both cost and embodied carbon at the earliest stages of design. By automating structural optimization and linking to carbon databases, it helps architects and engineers deliver more sustainable, cost-efficient buildings without changing their workflow.
“As a structural engineer passionate about the environment, I often felt my two worlds were in conflict. Winning the Venture Award has given me the opportunity to combine these passions and address a gap I experienced firsthand: while many tools measure carbon, few actively optimize for embodied carbon while also reducing cost,” shares Jarvis. “For me, this is about more than compliance with new carbon regulations; it’s about shaping a more efficient, affordable, and sustainable future. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity and excited to see where this journey leads.”
The panel – consisting of serial entrepreneur and IMD alumnus Thierry Maupilé (MBA 1988), venture capital investor Olivier Laplace (MBA 2014), managing partner of Raine Next-Gen Communications Kevin Linker, and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship Jim Pulcrano – voted unanimously for Jarvis’s vision of a software product that helps engineers and architects design buildings with a lower carbon footprint, while also reducing costs.
Established in 2022 by Maupilé, CEO of ELEO Partners, the IMD MBA Venture Award strengthens the IMD startup community by providing financial resources and guidance. This year, nearly 30% of the MBA class put forward a startup idea and competed for the four final pitch slots by pitching their idea to the jury and their classmates.
“People don’t typically attend an MBA program with the goal of founding a company, but Thierry wants to change that,” said Pulcrano. “This award was created to help incite MBAs to consider an entrepreneurial career, and the three candidates we saw in the final round – as well as the 20 in the first round – attest to his vision.”
Jarvis faced tough competition from the other ventures – one focused on building an app to encourage people to be more active and build stronger social networks, and another, a sign of the times, was software designed to help militaries reduce paperwork and enable fighting forces to focus on being ready and well-trained for missions.
