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According to the Era of Fintech Rising report by Razorpay, 2019 was the year of the fintech industry in India. Customer demand for digital transactions grew by a whopping 338 percent and across all the payment options, payments through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) saw the highest growth of 885 percent. The Indian financial services sector has embarked upon its digital journey and is catching up with its global peers in terms of adoption. However, sustaining in the market for long-term, requires more innovative work. And what’s a better way than hackathons to get the community together to build innovative fintech solutions?

Hackathons are gaining popularity in India as they offer fresh perspectives to business challenges and are also good tools to stimulate the creative and problem-solving juices of participants. Keeping this in mind, the leading competition platform, Dare2Compete is hosting two exciting hackathons for fintech enthusiasts this month. Here’s all you need to know about it:

India Finclusion Challenge

Organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Government of UK, in partnership with EY, the India Finclusion Challenge is a hackathon to identify early-stage ideas for innovative financial products and/or distribution solutions for SMEs, women and financially disadvantaged (excluded) segments for deepening the Indian financial services sector, thereby contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.

Who can participate?

Early-stage fintechs based in India with a team size of minimum five individuals can apply to the challenge. They can provide solutions under alternative credit SME financing like cashflow-based lending, digital onboarding of MSME financing, among others and/or innovations to support financial inclusion of women and financially underserved segments like neobanking, merchant digital payment acceptance, etc.

The pitch deck should include the problem statement, description of the desired application, core-user scenarios, team details and solutioning.

What’s in it for you?

The first prize winner will take home Rs 5 lakhs, followed by Rs 3 lakhs each for the second and third prize winners.

In addition to the cash prizes, the three winners will receive growth support over three years amounting to Rs 24 lakhs per fintech to scale their solutions. This support includes dedicated mentorship, funding access, market access, technical assistance and business advisory services.

Application timeline

The last date to apply is March 20, 2020. Participants will have to submit their solutions along with relevant product URLs (if any) by March 22, 2020. The finalists will be announced on March 25, 2020, post which they will get the opportunity to do a live demo of their solutions during the Demo Day on March 30, 2020.

Know more and register for India Finclusion Challenge

realme PaysackUPI Hackathon

realme PaySa App is organising a UPI Hackathon to identify individuals who can work with UPI as the base payment service/platform and provide innovative solutions that make life simpler, save costs, help solve a problem or bring new business opportunities.

Who can participate?

Students, startups, small businesses, employees working in very large companies, payment companies, coders or just about any individual is eligible to apply. You need to be an entity registered in India or an Indian resident. A team can have up to five members and can submit only one idea in the event.

Your UPI ideas could revolve around themes like, but not restricted to, customer registration to UPI, QR code penetration, lending, investments, security and fraud prevention, digital payment literacy, public transport and government services, among others.

What’s in it for you?

The first prize winner will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs while the second prize winner will get Rs 5 lakhs. The two winning teams will take their ideas from being just a dream to going live on the platform and a potential contract to work with realme PaySa.

Shortlisted teams in the finals will also get global visibility through an opportunity to present their prototypes to big corporates and digital payment leaders. They will also get access to technical, compliance and other know-how support from realme PaySa, NPCI and HDFC Bank for developing a solid prototype.

Application timeline

The last date to register for the challenge and submit your idea is March 10, 2020. The top 50 teams will be selected to submit their detailed solutions along with the tech stack by March 15, 2020 and the top 5 teams will have to present their prototype at the offline hackathon on May 11, 2020 in Mumbai.

Know more and register for realme PaySa UPI Hackathon