National Incubation Center (NIC) Pakistan’s first-of-its-kind and largest Incubation center, hosted FinTech Hackathon 2022 in collaboration with the country’s one of the largest banks, Allied Bank Limited (ABL). The hackathon was held in Islamabad.
Around 1,100 coders, UI/ UX experts and problem-solvers with a passion for FinTech applied from 53 cities and 26 universities across the country for the chance to get a shot at a collective PKR 2 million in prize money, in addition to helping with scaling their ideas.
Winners
These fintech ideas and prototypes that won the competition were:
1st – Oval (leverages metaverse to accelerate financial inclusion and literacy)
2nd – Fortify (B2B)
3rd – Finantler
Practical fintech solutions
The organizers said that the idea behind organizing the hackathon was to find practical and innovative solutions, prototypes, and disruptive ideas that could be used to initiate fintech startups in Pakistan and worldwide.
Pakistan’s digital financial potential is $ 36 billion by 2025 and fintech services can boost the GDP by 7% creating 4 million new jobs, and bringing in $263 billion in new deposits. This will create a need for young innovators to bring in solutions that will revolutionize space and lead to mass adoption of digital financial services.
Allied Bank CEO Azid Gill said the hackathon shows ABL’s commitment to supporting the development of the Fintech and Startup eco-system in Pakistan.
“This event is a true testament to Allied Bank’s commitment of to support the development of the Fintech and Startup eco-system in Pakistan. Allied bank and NIC hosted exemplary teams who presented revolutionary ideas pertaining to the field of digital banking whilst addressing the problem statements given to them,” said Azid Gill during his speech.
One of the key factors behind the growth of the fintech market is the large investment of banks and businesses in technology-based solutions. In addition, infrastructure-based technologies and APIs are reshaping the future of the financial services industry and supporting the growth of the global fintech market.
The following thematic areas were identified in the hackathon in the fintech space:
- Innovation in Fintech Banking
- Financial Inclusion and Literacy
- SME and Startup Banking
Fintech Hackathon 2022
Over 1000 applications were received for the hackathon of which 12 teams were shortlisted. The shortlisted teams underwent a three-day training bootcamp, comprising 8 hours of mentorship, and 7 hours of training. Later the teams went through 12 hacking hours to make sure the teams were rightly prepared for the innovation challenge.
Later, 6 teams were finalized for the ABL-NIC Fintech Hackathon 2022 finale based on their final proposals after the three-day bootcamp. The judges included Chief Digital Officer, Allied Bank Limited Sohail Aziz, Advisory board member COLABS, Fatima Mazhar, and Chief Information Technology Group, ABL Mujahid Ali.
