This year’s F10 FinTech Hackathon Zurich – the biggest Fintech Hackathon in Europe – had to be held online due to coronavirus.
The sudden change did not stop 13 teams with participants from 19 countries from transferring their bright ideas into prototypes during the ten-day Online Hackathon. The Hackathon jury has now selected the winning teams.
The F10 FinTech Hackathon Zurich is the biggest FinTech Hackathon in Europe and we have received more than 300 applications by tech talents, businesspeople, marketing wizards and lateral thinkers from all over the world.
Due to the first cases of coronavirus in Switzerland during the last week of February 2020, the F10 Hackathon could not be held on-site in Zurich as planned. Within one week, the coding get-together was transferred into an Online Hackathon. Offering this option at such short notice was just possible because the participants, sponsors and the F10 team stayed agile and worked in concert. Video content was created to provide the relevant information, guide through the Hackathon as well as synchronize and collaborate.
For ten days, the participants dedicated their free time to coding, ideation and discussing ideas with their teammates through a Slack channel that had been set up by F10. The challenge leaders SIX (the Swiss Stock Exchange), Julius Baer and F10 held Q&A sessions online to help the participants understand the Hackathon challenges better. 13 teams handed in prototypes addressing the challenges that the global finance industry is facing.
Diversity was an important ingredient of the F10 Online Hackathon: innovators from 19 countries participated, almost one-third of the game-changers developing new solutions for the global finance industry was female and 52 percent of the participants were techies, while the rest came from a business background. Out of multiple high-potential prototypes submitted by the teams, the Hackathon jury has now selected the winners.
Ground-breaking business ideas were realized
The first challenge provided by Platinum Sponsor SIX “Brew a Magic Potion for the Cash Warriors” was won by the team Hackstreet Bois. The jury particularly liked the efficiency of the business idea drafted by the Hackstreet Bois and the option to make the solution widely available. SIX had provided another Hackathon challenge that invited the participants to use open banking solutions to help banks address their business with SME. The winner of the SME challenge by SIX was team eCREDIT that had developed a prototype to help SME raise capital from banks. Besides their innovative idea, eCREDIT impressed the jury with their pitching skills.
The third Hackathon challenge “Matchmaking Between Investors and Entrepreneurs: Club Deal Platform to Enhance Private Banking Services” was provided by Premium Sponsor Julius Baer. Hackathon team Bärcode won this challenge with a systematic combination of marketplace, social collaboration towards open banking and additional partners.
“We are humbled by the effort and passion Bärcode put into the Hackathon”,
says Matthias Plattner, Head of Channels & Innovation at Bank Julius Baer.
The winner of the F10 challenge “How Might We Assess the Health of An SME Based on Data?” is LoKal with their solution focusing on improving the financial performance of restaurants.
“Especially after the corona crisis, restaurants might be in need of solutions like the one suggested by LoKal”,
F10 Startup Coach Deborrah Schaer explains.
LoKal also won the F10 Golden Ticket for the Top 25 of our P2 “Prototype to Product” program starting in Zurich in August 2020. F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator guides and supports Startups with innovative business on their journey to successful companies. The program members receive six months training in Zurich, in close collaboration with the big players in finance, banking, insurance and technology as well as with experts from various fields.
