(Manama, Bahrain) – The 3 winners of the first Fintech for Sustainability hackathon, Powered by BENEFIT, were announced yesterday in a ceremony at Arcapita Building. The awards were presented by principal partner BENEFIT, in partnership with The Manama Hub of the Global Shapers Community. The month long Hackathon was hosted by the Bahrain Fintech Bay, in cooperation with various knowledge partners in Bahrain.
Students from various universities in Bahrain came up with 6 solutions that addressed 10 Sustainable Development Goals. Bahrain Fintech Bay hosted the first “Fintech for Sustainability Hackathon” in the MENA Region in partnership with BENEFIT and The Manama Hub of the Global Shapers Community, with the objective of nurturing fintech talents to meet the evolving needs of the financial services sector. The month-long hackathon kicked off in March.
The 6 teams showcased their innovative solutions and conducted their final pitches after 4 -weeks of guided mentorship form various entrepreneurs in Bahrain and Design thinking skills taught by various organizations. The top 3 winners were First place winner Sprive, which aimed to include the unbanked and underbanked sector of the population through a smart app by which customers do not need bank accounts to attain investment opportunities. Second Place winner Beam; a solution which introduced a holistic solution that allows the user to track and manage electricity consumption in addition to bill payment and other fuctions . Third place winner DonateTech; which introduced Bahrain's first cashless Crypto-philanthropy platform.
In addition, the Hackathon conducted online voting for the public to nominate their favorite idea to have one team be chosen for the “People’s Choice Award”. The Hackathon’s committee received 1,000+ votes and the winner was revealed to be Codex, that introduced the 'Smart Cart' solution. The Smart Cart helps in reducing waste generated through supermarket's supply chain.
The final pitches were judged by a panel of industry leading experts – including that assessed the applicants and selected winners for each category. Judges included Yasmeen Al Sharaf; Head of the Fintech and Innovation Unit of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Khalid Saad; CEO of Bahrain Fintech Bay, Shaheen S. Shaheen; Investment Manager at Osool, and Hanan Hasan, Assistant Manager at BENEFIT.
Nada Darwish, Curator of the Global Shapers Community - Manama Hub congratulated the winners “Organizations including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum have invested in FinTech technology, believing that it has the potential to help progress the SDGs to make the world more inclusive and prosperous. ”
BENEFIT Acting CEO, Yousif Alnefaiei added “This initiative was an impactful journey for our students – they have taken away key lessons and achieved a great milestone. The ideas we witnessed were creative, innovative and addressed the SDGs in a clever manner. We hope they can go forward with these solutions, or have this experience push them to do more in this space. The youth has the upmost capabilities and will continue to provide them platforms to excel.”
Khalid Saad, CEO Bahrain Fintech Bay Commented on the final ceremony “The FinTech for Sustainability Hackathon is a great example of our continuous efforts alongside our partners in making Bahrain a pioneering FinTech hub in the region. The hackathon provided Bahrain's university students with the opportunity to address real-world challenges in a sustainable manner and attain advice from experts in different fields. We will continue to support the students in translating those ideas in commercially-feasible projects”
The Manama Hub of the Global Shapers Community
Founded by the World Economic Forum in 2011, the Global Shapers Community is a network of inspiring young people working together to address local, regional and global challenges. With more than 6,000 members, the Global Shapers Community spans 378 city-based Hubs in 163 countries and territories. The Manama Hub is the local chapter of the Global Shapers Community and is considered independent legally from the World Economic Forum and the wider Global Shapers Community.
The BENEFIT Company
BENEFIT was established in 1997 and is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) as an ancillary service provider to the Kingdom’s financial services industry. BENEFIT is owned by Banks in Bahrain, regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), and provides innovative e-Payment products to the Kingdom’s banks, retailers and consumers.
Bahrain FinTech Bay
Bahrain FinTech Bay (“BFB”) is the leading FinTech Hub in Middle East, located conveniently in the Arcapita Building, Bahrain. Bahrain FinTech Bay provides a physical hub to incubate insightful, scalable and impactful FinTech initiatives through innovation labs, acceleration programmes, curated activities, educational opportunities and collaborative platforms. Bahrain FinTech Bay partners with governmental bodies, financial institutions, corporates, consultancy firms, universities, associations, media agencies, venture capital and FinTech startups to bring the full spectrum of financial market participants and stakeholders together. For more information on Bahrain FinTech Bay visit: https://www.bahrainfintechbay.com/
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