From an idea that once existed on paper to solutions with the potential to make a real difference, the four winning teams of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 have taken home much more than an incubation grant.

They are carrying forward newfound confidence, conviction and the belief that their ideas can change the world.

For the four winning teams of Samsung Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) 2026, the moment their names were announced at the Grand Finale in New Delhi was about much more than winning a competition. It was the culmination of months of learning, experimentation, mentorship and pushing the boundaries of what they believed was possible.

For some, the victory still feels unreal. For others, it has opened doors they had only imagined. But across all four teams, there is one sentiment that resonates: the SFT experience has been nothing short of transformational.

“Wow!” is how Team QuantHunt from Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, describes its SFT journey in a single word. “It was fabulous, amazing and transformational. The way the entire programme was planned and executed was excellent. It was designed to empower us, and that made all the difference,” the team said.

Led by 21-year-old Akul Attre and 20-year-old Saksham Shreyans, QuantHunt is developing an AI-based cybersecurity solution that identifies encryption vulnerabilities and helps organisations prepare their digital infrastructure for emerging risks associated with quantum computing. Winning in the AI Living for India category has given the young innovators not just recognition but also the resources and encouragement to take their ambitious idea further.

For Team morphism from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the victory is still sinking in. “We still can’t believe we have won. It is the most amazing experience, and honestly, it feels surreal,” the team said.

Led by Ananya Agrawal and Adityasai Bakthashanmuganandam, morphism is working on an AI-powered system that helps autistic individuals better understand emotions by analysing subtle facial expressions and other behavioural signals, particularly addressing challenges associated with alexithymia.

Their journey from making it to the national Top 40 to emerging as winners in the Health and Education category has been one of persistence, learning and discovery. For the team, the recognition is an affirmation of their belief in building technology that can make the world more inclusive.

For Team InnoBotix from New Delhi, the SFT journey has been an opportunity to see its idea evolve into something much bigger than initially imagined.

“It has been a great opportunity, almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are already receiving offers, both nationally and internationally. SFT has transformed our idea into something else altogether. We believe in our product much more strongly now,” the team said.

Led by Avi Mohan Kumar and Yash Varshney, InnoBotix has developed Sentinel, a solar-powered AI edge device that combines cameras, radar and seismic data to detect wildlife approaching human settlements and provide early warnings. The solution, which won in the Environmental Sustainability category, aims to address the growing challenge of human-wildlife conflict through technology.

For the young innovators, the experience has gone beyond developing a product. It has helped them recognise its larger potential, strengthen their confidence and see possibilities for taking their solution to a wider audience.

Team Somatrace from Hyderabad, Telangana, believes that one of the biggest takeaways from SFT has been the clarity and conviction it has brought to its idea.

“SFT was a great experience. It helped me put things into perspective. I feel even more strongly about our idea now and are determined to pursue it further. The programme made me believe that this is not something that has to happen someday in the future. It is something that can happen now,” Homanshika said.

Developed by a young innovator from Hyderabad, Somatrace is building a wearable IoT-based training tool that measures spinal angles and physical load during training. By providing insights into movement and potential injury risks, the solution aims to help precision-sport athletes and coaches make more informed training decisions.

Winning in the Sport and Tech category has further strengthened the team’s resolve to take its innovation forward and explore its potential to make sports training safer and more effective.

More than a competition: A journey of transformation

While the four winning teams have distinct ideas addressing challenges across cybersecurity, inclusion, environmental sustainability and sports, their journeys share a common thread: the transformation of an idea into a solution with real-world potential.

As they move into the next chapter, backed by Samsung’s incubation support and carrying the confidence gained through the programme, their journey is far from over. In many ways, it is only just beginning.

The Government, Innovation Leaders and the UN have lauded Samsung CSR’s focus to nurture young innovators, expanding access to innovation opportunities across India and helping transform ideas into solutions with real-world impact through Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

Addressing Samsung leaders, industry experts, SFT mentors and participants at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 Grand Finale in New Delhi, Sushil Pal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said innovation must be measured by its ability to improve people’s lives. He commended Samsung for creating a platform that gives young people the confidence to dream and the opportunity to develop products and build startups.

“It’s very heartening to see that Samsung is doing so much for society through their CSR initiatives. I thank Samsung for creating a platform which gives young minds the confidence to dream and the opportunity to build their product and to build their startup,” Pal said.

The fifth edition of Samsung’s flagship CSR programme, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow received more than 34,000 student applications, with 60 finalists reaching the Grand Finale. The programme encourages young people to apply science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to address challenges in their communities, supporting them as they develop and refine solutions with the potential to create meaningful change.

Pal noted that the rise of artificial intelligence had changed the nature of innovation, with technology increasingly shaping how people learn, work, manufacture and access services. He urged young innovators to focus not merely on developing advanced technologies but on addressing pressing human needs.

“The real measure of innovation does not lie in how complex the algorithm is. It lies in what difference it can make to a common person’s life,” he said.

He cited challenges such as helping farmers save water and power, bringing health diagnostics to underserved areas, improving access to quality education in remote villages and enabling scientific sports training. These, he said, were opportunities to contribute to nation-building.

Pal also called on industry to help people adapt to a changing world of work, emphasising that as AI automates some tasks and augments others, preparing people for evolving job roles would be as important as developing new technologies.

Connecting young innovators with global challenges

Stefan Priesner, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India, highlighted SFT’s role in bringing young people’s ideas into the broader effort to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He noted that global progress towards these goals remained too slow and uneven, making youth participation and scalable solutions increasingly important.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is a strong example of the United Nations system and the private sector working together to advance a youth-centred agenda, amplify young voices, and give promising ideas the support they need to grow,” Priesner said.

He emphasised that the private sector could contribute beyond corporate social responsibility by aligning business priorities with environmental sustainability and social inclusion, while helping innovative solutions reach a wider population. Governments, universities, businesses and the UN, he said, all had a role in helping promising ideas scale.

Priesner also encouraged the finalists to remain connected to the communities they hoped to serve, continuously testing and improving their ideas to ensure they could deliver meaningful impact.

Taking innovation beyond metros and creating job creators

Dr Nikhil Agarwal, Managing Director of the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi, highlighted Samsung’s CSR efforts to help bring innovation opportunities to a wider pool of young people.

“Samsung Solve for Tomorrow shows the commitment as they have gone to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and different states for building that momentum. SFT got double the number of applications this year and it shows,” Agarwal said.

The programme’s outreach included more than 180 sessions across over 130 cities, helping engage students from diverse geographies and backgrounds. The growth in participation, Agarwal noted, reflected the momentum built by taking the initiative beyond major urban centres.

He also underscored the importance of translating student-led innovation into entrepreneurship, encouraging participants to build ventures that could create opportunities for others.

“You should become job creators, not job doers,” Agarwal told the students, expressing hope that future entrepreneurs would emerge from the programme and build companies that generate employment.

At the 2026 Grand Finale, four winning teams were selected to receive incubation grants totalling ₹2 crore from Samsung, along with mentorship and incubation support at FITT-IIT Delhi. SFT provides promising young innovators with mentorship and incubation support to help them develop their ideas further.

The speakers’ remarks underscored the value of platforms such as Samsung Solve for Tomorrow in bringing together government, industry, international institutions and academia to nurture young talent. By encouraging students to identify real-world problems, develop technology-led solutions and explore entrepreneurship, the programme seeks to help turn promising ideas into innovations that can make a difference at scale.

The next breakthrough may begin with a problem a young person sees every day: unsafe drinking water, stubble burning, barriers to communication or a gap in local services.

The 16 startup founders mentoring Samsung Solve for Tomorrow 2026 finalists say young innovators are increasingly drawing on their own experience and understanding of the people they want to serve. Among them are Ankit Garg, Robin Singh, Samridhi Bhardwaj and Dishant Mishra. They see wider access to technology and information helping ideas emerge from smaller cities and communities across India.

“They really want to solve a problem that is actually hurting someone somewhere. Even if the market is looking small, these young innovators are attempting it, they are going for it, and they are solving those problems,” said Dishant Mishra, founder of IIT Delhi-incubated Water Resources. “Creating a market is going to be the second step, and they are not focused on the second step. Perhaps that is the refreshing change that I have observed with this year’s cohort.”

Robin Singh, founder of water-quality intelligence startup Cluix, has seen how an idea can continue beyond the programme. A team he mentored from rural Bihar developed a filtration system to address arsenic contamination in water, won the challenge and went on to commercialise its product.

“They came from rural Bihar and, essentially, they could see that there was no solution available in the field. At a very young age, when they were just students, they developed a filtration system. That filtration system won the challenge, and now they have gone on to commercialise the product,” Singh said.

This year, Singh is mentoring SignBridge AI, a team working to help people with disabilities communicate more independently. He said, “I think this increases inclusivity in the society, and we need such solutions.”

Samridhi Bhardwaj, a founder working in women’s health, said access to technology has changed the relationship between geography and opportunity. “Students across India, including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, have access to technology and the kind of exposure that many of their peers and seniors did not have. So, I don’t think geography is a hindrance anymore. Any innovative solution can come from any part of India.”

For Ankit Garg, founder of clean-label food brand EemuMasale, local problems can have relevance well beyond the communities where they first emerge. “Stubble burning is not a local issue. It is a national challange that they are working to solve. They have seemingly developed a prototype that could also address nutrition in India by providing alternative protein options,” he said.

Half of the ideas in this year’s cohort came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, according to Singh. He said, “The ideas that people are getting in tier 2 cities are sometimes even better than the ones that you see in tier 1 cities. The exposure has increased, and the application of such ideas has become better.”

The founders see mentorship as a way to help young innovators move from identifying a problem to developing and testing a solution. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow brings finalists together with startup founders, academia and industry, offering guidance and opportunities to develop their ideas.

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow is Samsung’s global innovation and education programme for young people. The 2026 edition marks its fifth year in India.

Avi Mohan Kumar and Yash Varshney are developing Sentinel, a solar-powered AI edge device that uses cameras, radar and seismic data to detect wildlife approaching human settlements and provide early warnings.

Watch the team share what making it to the Top 20 means to them and how they hope technology can help build safer coexistence between communities and wildlife.

Manoj Kumar, Jena R and Chriswin William D are developing NeuroStride, an AI-powered wearable that seeks to distinguish involuntary Parkinson’s tremors from intentional muscle movement and provide targeted electrical stimulation.

Watch the team share what reaching the Top 20 means to them and how they hope to explore new possibilities in assistive wearable technology.

Led by Vidit Bhayana, the team is developing Sense Guard, a low-cost AI wearable designed to identify physiological patterns associated with sensory meltdowns in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and provide caregivers with early alerts.

Watch Vidit share what being among the Top 20 means to him and how he hopes the idea can support children and their caregivers.Sport & Tech

Shiva is developing a wearable navigation system that detects when visually impaired swimmers veer from their intended direction and provides haptic cues to help them make course corrections.

Watch Siva share what making it to the Top 20 means to him and how he hopes to make swimming more accessible through technology.

Led by Aarna Gupta, the team is developing a low-cost construction debris net designed to capture and degrade airborne pollutants while integrating with existing scaffolding.

Watch Aarna share what reaching the Top 20 means to her and how she hopes to address an everyday environmental challenge through innovation.

A V Kruthi Krishna and Bhavya Chawat are developing StepSense, a sensor and edge-AI system that turns footwear into a gait-monitoring platform to identify indicators associated with fall risk, neuropathy, fatigue and other health conditions.

Watch the team share what reaching the Top 20 means to them and how they hope to explore new possibilities in wearable health technology.

Sofiur Rahaman and Sayak Samanta are developing an AI-powered platform that translates Indian Sign Language into text and speech in real time, with potential applications across schools, hospitals, workplaces and public spaces.

Watch the team share what making it to the Top 20 means to them and how they hope to enable more inclusive communication through technology.