Philippine Team’s Farm App Wins Finastra’s Global Hackathon

A team of students and young professionals from the Philippines beat hundreds of developers and data scientists from around the world in this year’s “Hack to the Future” hackathon by London-based fintech firm Finastra.

The team won under the “Future of Payment & Banking for a Better Future” category.

Team “WonderTech”, which consisted of four young professionals and university students in Manila, the Philippines, won the grand prize of Finastra’s largest-ever global financial technology hackathon on its open development platform, FusionFabric.cloud.

The Manila-based team was selected for the top honor for its ‘Agree Farm App’ from among five category winners at Finastra Universe New York.

Agree Farm App aims to connect rural farmers in the Philippines with access to bank loans. It was chosen by an audience of senior professionals representing financial institutions. The team’s
app was built using open APIs on FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s open development platform.

Team Philippines was composed of Michael Puzon, Vaniza Dagangon, John Robert Tubale, and Clyde Palattao.

Using Finastra’s payment APIs, in combination with third-party industry APIs, the team built the working prototype in just a few weeks, proving the speed and simplicity of FusionFabric.cloud.

Shuki Licht, Chief Innovation Officer at Finastra, said Team “WonderTech” has developed an app that helps provide vital financial services to those who have traditionally been unbanked or underbanked.

“Fintech is one of the hottest growth and innovation areas, with some serious investment from banks, private equity, VC, and government. ‘Team WonderTech’ and all of the category winners have demonstrated an incredible ability to understand the needs of the market and have shown that the future of finance is truly open,” Licht added.

More than 1,000 individuals, including data scientists, developers, and engineers, from across 38 countries, participated in the ‘Hack to the Future’ hackathon.

Inventing over 240 innovative new apps, the hackathon teams harnessed new technologies, with more than 40 percent of the hackathon submissions using Machine Learning.

Last year, StartupX called on change-makers to tackle the biggest challenges the world faces with the launch of its new global innovation programme.

The HyperX hackathon-to-accelerator programme, the first of its kind centered on innovating for a better and more sustainable future, has been co-developed with Singapore-headquartered investment company Temasek.