The very first Finance Innovation Hackathon has come to an end. Six teams have worked around the clock to come up with solutions that can revolutionize the world of finance.
We challenged developers, designers, entrepreneurs and students to come up with solutions that could revolutionize the world of finance through simplification, visualizations and new combinations of data during a 30-hour innovation contest.
The Hackathon was made possible by its members Sparebanken Vest, Sbanken, Idfy, DnB, Nordea, Stacc, Ambita and Bergen Teknologioverføring.
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Mentors Marlene B. Bertelsen (Fana Sparebank) and Thomas Thjøstheim (Sbanken) giving feedback to Kjetil Nygård (Ambita) during the Finance Innovation Fintech Hackathon. Photo: Gunfilm [/caption]
30 hours of intense work
With less than 30 hours of brainstorming, workshops and prototyping the teams pitched their ideas at Nyskapningsparken in BTO. Their ideas were evaluated by criteria’s such as user potential, prototype, level of innovation, commercial potential and x-factor.
The hackathon participants got a crash course in rapid prototyping by Håkon Nilsen (Apparat), access to APIs from our members and mentors from Sbanken, DnB, Fana Sparebank, Sparebanken Vest and Finance Innovation, who provided valuable advice and input to the participants.
The best idea would get the chance to develop the concept further, office space at Jonsvollkvartalet, access to mentors from Finance Innovations member pool and tickets to tech-conference Slush in Helsinki.
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Finance Innovation's Hackathon organizers gathered together at BTO to discuss the Hackathon progress and status. From the left: Rea Parashar (Finance Innovation), Ingar Berntsen (The Factory), Eirik Eidem (Sparebanken Vest), Marlene Bertelsen (Fana Sparebank), Thomas Tjøstheim (Sbanken), Atle Sivertsen (Finance Innovation) og Charlotte Rakner (PwC). Photo: Gunfilm [/caption]
“Shrewdy” – the app that will help save the environment and your wallet
After impressive pitching from all teams, it was team Shrewdy that came out on top. They created an app which aims to improve personal economy and that is at the same time environmentally friendly.
The team consisted of Marte Vassbotten (PwC), Lars Erik Molvik (Fana Sparebank), Jon Fraczak (Sbanken), Ellen Blomkvist (Høyskolen Kristiania) and Erik Aasmul (Ambita).
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Team Shrewdy represented by Marte Vassbotten and Ellen Blomkvist receiving the first prize from CEO of Finance Innovation, Atle Sivertsen. Photo: Finance Innovation [/caption]
What is Shrewdy?
During two intense days the winning team created a concept, which the jury felt, was innovative and that could provide great customer value.
Shrewdy connects information about your expenses and shows how environmentally friendly your purchases are. Team Shrewdy’s solution aims to show the users environmental footprint and also show how the users purchases are affecting the global environment.
But it doesn’t stop there. Shrewdy also aims to show the users how they can reduce their environmental footprint by showing the user which products they are buying today that they should buy more or less of. Shrewdy will also help you find better alternative products, which are even more environmentally friendly than the products you currently are buying.
Innovation at its best
“This is innovation and I’m impressed. Combining personal economy with your environmental footprint is something I haven’t seen before. A service that helps me improve my personal economy whilst at the same time helps me make environmentally conscious purchases. That’s something that has potential!” says jury member Eirik Eidem from Sparebanken Vest.
“It is amazing what we have managed to create in so short time” says Marte Vassbotn in Team Shrewdy. “We knew we had a good idea, but we did not expect to win” she says. Marte thinks that one of the reasons they won was due to them bringing in the element of being environmentally conscious into personal economy. “I mean, this is something I really want to use myself” she concludes.
Best prototype
During a Hackathon there is always more than one winner. Our jury was very impressed with Group 3's prototype and idea. The group of four created a solution which separates personal expenses with joint expenses, by creating an automated overview of joint and personal expenses based on predefined rules. We are excited to see what they will do further on with this idea!
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Group 3 with the best prototype during Finance Innovations Hackathon in Bergen. Here reprepresented by Danny Javier Tapiero Luna (Statoil), Sverre Helland (Knowit), Håvard Olsen (Knowit) and Glenn Davanger (Knowit). Photo: Finance Innovation [/caption]
Finance Innovation's Fintech Hackathon in Oslo and Trondheim
Finance Innovation is inviting developers, designers, entrepreneurs and innovation enthusiasts working within or studying finance, insurance, tech, strategy or innovation to participate in our innovation contests in Oslo (5-6 June) and Trondheim (28-29 August). If you were not able to join us in Bergen, then we hope to see you either in Oslo or Trondheim!
Check out more photos from Finance Innovation's Hackathon in Bergen:
Photo: Gunfilm
