The Edison Awards, celebrating 29 years of honoring the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services, announced today that LoanGifting, an RKS incubation, was voted a Silver Winner for innovation at the April 21st event at The Capitale in New York City. Ravi Sawhney, RKS CEO & Founder joined hundreds of senior executives from some of the world’s most recognized companies to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of all of the 2016 Edison Award winners.

Being recognized with an Edison Award has become one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of innovation and business. The awards are named after Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) whose inventions, new product development methods and innovative achievements literally changed the world, garnered him 1,093 U.S. patents, and made him a household name around the world.

“Our judges recognized LoanGifting as a true innovator out of the many products in its category,” said Frank Bonafilia, executive director of the Edison Awards.

Upon receiving the honor, Sawhney commented that, “Industrial Designers are often unsung heroes of innovation. We’re trained to see through the smoke and mirrors, the traditions and superstitions, through all the noise right to people’s needs and aspirations and  into their heads and hearts. And in the process we fuse technology together with user experience to create new worlds for people. In this case, the RKS team searched for emerging needs and discovered what has become an epidemic of student debt and then used its acclaimed Psycho-Aesthetic design thinking methodology to conceive and bring to life a new innovative technology to bridge students with their network of friends, family, affiliations and employers to join together to help them live debt free lives. Getting an education should represent freedom to live the lives they dreamed of and worked so hard for….debt free!”

The ballot of nominees for the Edison Awards™ was judged by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives including past award winners, academics and leaders in the fields of product development, design, engineering, science and medical.

One of the evening’s many highlights was the presentation of the prestigious Edison Achievement Award to John Chambers, Executive Chairman, Cisco Systems, lauded as one of Barron’s World’s Best CEO’s and Time’s “100 Most Influential People.”  The award honors innovation leaders and business executives who have made a significant and lasting contribution to innovation throughout their careers. The Edison Achievement Award serves as inspiration to future innovators and to the world at large.

In addition to the Awards Gala, the annual Edison Awards program encompassed a full-day “Meet the Innovators Forum” and the “Innovators’ Showcase,” which offered guests a hands-on experience with many of the winning products.

About LoanGifting

LoanGifting was conceived as a resource to aid students, graduates, professionals young and old who have taken out loans to invest in higher education to advance themselves and our society. However, the ever growing burden of student debt is precluding this from happening the way it should and they had envisioned. LoanGifting has built the pathway that connects the 40 million, and growing number of Americans holding student debt with the greater community of generous family, friends, and employers who would love nothing more than to give the great gift of education. This new innovation to crowdfunding makes it possible for all of us to pitch in, amounts big and small, and save our loved ones and our country from the student debt crisis. LoanGiftng sheds a light on the previously shadowed subject of debt and shifts the focus to getting debt under control. Holidays, birthdays, and special occasions aren’t about gifts, they are about loving and supporting one another. Following a highly successful Beta test with over 400 people, the highly developed platform will launch this summer.