European banks have not always been as eager to embrace disruptions in the same way as U.S. banks. So when Barclays, one of the largest banks in Europe, invited Envestnet | Yodlee to participate in their upcoming Rise Hackathon in September, we were very pleased. Barclays Rise Hackathon signals a big shift in the European market, where banks haven't really engaged with aggregation platforms in a serious way. But the banks are driven by the move to open banking in Europe and have begun changing the way they approach innovation.
Envestnet® | Yodlee® is keen to support banks and fintech startups to help drive the next generation of digital financial services. One way we support the fintech ecosystem is through technology partnerships at hackathons. The Rise Hackathon is a one month long contest that will culminate in a 2-day hackathon at Rise Manchester (Manchester, UK) and at the Bombay Stock Exchange (Mumbai, India). Entries close on Sunday, 11th of September, when final ideas need to be submitted online for consideration. Ideas do not have to be perfect or fully formed – these we understand will change. This is simply to connect you to the relevant experts from Yodlee and Barclays to help you build on your solution. You then have until the 25th of September to build and deploy your idea. Final "combat" will be held on the 24th and 25th of September at both locations. Participants (developers, companies and teams) can be from anywhere in the world, but if your idea advances to the final stage, you're expected to be in Manchester or Mumbai on the 24th and 25th of September. There are £7000 (7L INR) in cash prizes available, with the winning team from each world (more on that below) picking up £1,500 (1.5L INR), and the runners-up receiving £750. And the winner from all three worlds will have a chance to build their solution with Barclays, as well as interview for a spot in the Barclays Accelerator.
Remember, this is an unrivalled opportunity to get in front of senior decision makers at one of the largest banks in Europe to showcase your solution and/or business. Additionally, Envestnet | Yodlee will be giving away £100 Amazon gift vouchers as prizes to each member of one team in each location for best use of Yodlee technology. The hackathon seeks to solve problem statements in three areas: retail banking, corporate banking, and banking as a platform. The scenario sounds like the plot to a sci-fi movie, but the execution is brilliant. The Universe of Financial Services is at war, as the Disruptors Alliance wages a three-prong attack against the Bank Empire.
Depending on your interests and capabilities, the Rise Hackathon has one of three worlds you can help to reclaim, and they have been designed so all the partner APIs will be available to help participants solve all three problem statements. World 1 is the Consumer Cosmos (Retail Banking). The mission is to reimagine how people will use financial services in the future. How will they think, behave, and engage with the bank as part of their normal lives? World 2 is the Rebellion of the Corporate Treasurer (Corporate Banking). Simplify and consolidate the daily banking needs of Corporate Treasurers. Consumers already have this available to them through a myriad of personal finance apps, so why not businesses as well? World 3 is home of the Payments Parallax (Banking Platforms).
Explore how banking services will change to meet changing customer behavior and demands, by identifying new interaction models that provide the trust, security and support people expect from their banks. There will be one winner from each world, three winners total, and they will be announced at the Rise Hackathon event.
To learn more about how to participate in the Rise Hackathon Episode II: The Bank Awakens, visit RiseHackathon.com. We’re excited to partner with Barclay’s and join other technology partners like Google Cloud Platform, Twitter, Salesforce, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Twilio to support developers. As a technology partner, we’re offering access to the RESTful Envestnet | Yodlee Aggregation API that provides a simple and secure way for developers to access over 16,000 data sources for many types of financial data, including current accounts, credit cards, mortgages, investments, loyalty and many other accounts. Click here to learn more: https://developer.yodlee.com/Yodlee_API and we hope to see you there!
