Money20/20 lays down 36-hour FinTech developers’ challenge in Las Vegas
Aria Las Vegas will be the venue for the challenge
FinTech developers, designers and entrepreneurs are being challenged to a 36-hour development tournament in the days leading up to this year’s of the Money20/20 event in Las Vegas in November.
The Money20/20 Hackathon is inviting individuals or teams of up to five members to develop FinTech applications using application programming interfaces, software development kits and other tools from “10 of the biggest innovators in payments and financial services”, including Blockchain.info, Chain.com, MasterCard, Mercury Payment Systems, ModoPayments and PayPal.
Ten winning teams will share a total prize pool of $125,000, with five $20,000 and five $5,000 cash prizes provided by Money20/20. The overall winning team will also have the opportunity to present their solution as part of Money20/20’s Launchpad360, a programme that provides companies with a forum to showcase their innovation in front of an audience of thousands of investors, media and other ecosystem participants. Last year’s Launchpad360 participants have since raised more than $65 million in venture capital funding, the organisers say.
The Money20/20 will provide qualified participants with a $250 stipend towards travel, lodging and other expenses. Participants can also join a series of other events, including a Halloween party on Friday evening as well as judging and awards ceremonies that conclude the proceedings on Sunday.
“At MasterCard, we are focused on making the developer experience as seamless and as easy as possible when they integrate our products and services. We have a number of solutions and tools for developers to use, and provide easy access to a sandbox environment, which helps them experiment and test before they go live,” said Mario Shiliashki, group head and senior vice president, Open API and Emerging Payments, MasterCard. “Additionally, we work with developers and startups in a number of accelerator and incubator partnerships where we provide funding, advice, and access to the MasterCard product teams. The Money20/20 Hackathon provides an unparalleled opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs to help create great commerce and payments experiences.”
According to Simran Aggarwal, co-founder and president of Money20/20, the event will provide an platform for third-party developer communities to drive innovation. “The way people and businesses manage, spend and borrow money is changing, with transactions increasingly only part of more connected everyday activities,” said Aggarwal. “Open and interoperable platforms are enabling integrated innovations such as mobile wallets, seamless authentication and identification, omni-channel and micro-location shopping experiences, data-enriched services, cloud point-of-sale engagement and much more. We are proud to support innovation in payment and financial services as a core part of the Money20/20 experience.”
The Money20/20 Hackathon will be held 31 October to 2 November at Aria in Las Vegas, immediately before Money20/20, which takes place on 2-6 November.
For more information about the Money20/20 Hackathon and to register or sponsor, visit: http://www.money2020.com/money2020-hackathon.
