In support of digital transformation and financial inclusion in MENA, RiseUp facilitated the region’s first financial inclusion tech competition, the FIGI Hackathon, with the support of the International Telecommunications Union. The competition took place between 21st and 22nd of January at the Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski in New Cairo as part of the FIGI Symposium
Team Hackers came in 1st Place and walked away with $6,000 for their creative application, “Mekaneeky” which enables car owners to select a mechanic, book an appointment, avoid waiting in line, pay their bills and rate their experience. On the supply side, the app would help mechanics to learn more about their customers and keep a digital record of their transactions, business intelligence of considerable value in improving their business operations and accessing credit. Members of the team include Ahmed Hisham Rihan, Salma Medhat Shaaban, Ahmed Zaki, Mohamed Hussein, and Amr Ahmed Ali.
While Team MDI (Merchant Digital Identity) took 2nd Place, and received $3,000, by building a geo-location based digital identity platform that connects merchants to FMCGs, banks, and MFIs. The team included Alaa Lasheen, Amr Zakaria, and Hady Seoudi.
In 3rd place was Tillion, who built a data and behavior-powered app that aims to assist consumers in staying on course towards their savings targets. They will receive $2,000 in winnings. Team members were Abeer Abdelmajeed, Hussein Gaber El Sayed, Mohamed Abdel Nabi Khalifa, and
After 25 hours of work on their solutions, the 8 participating teams submitted their code and pitched their ideas to a panel of 10 expert local and international judges who scored each team on impact, creativity, feasibility, and innovation. The three finalists also got to present their ideas on the FIGI Symposium stage in front of the FIGI community who are a body of industry leaders and decision makers that could take outstanding solutions forward.
A 4th team, Ka-Ching, received an honourable mention as an all-woman team participating in the FIGI Hackathon. They built a digital solution that incentivizes merchants to make use of their e-wallets by returning points for the use of electronic payments, points which could fund further purchases or alternatively be cashed-out.
“I think that what FIGI is doing is going to create a huge impact on the economical situation in Egypt, especially that the topic of the Hackathon is aimed to help a very underrated segment which is small merchants”, said RiseUp’s Senior Innovation Specialist and FIGI Hackathon Project Manager Tasneem Breaka, “Innovations like these motivate them to digitize their finances so they can easily be part of the formal economy”.