‘Savetastic’ App Scoops Top Prize at Ireland’s First Banking ‘Hackathon’

A new app idea, ‘Savetastic’, which will use customer’s banking information to offer them savings on a range of items such as utility bills, travel and shopping, took the top prize at Ireland’s first dedicated banking hackathon organised by Ulster Bank and the Open Bank Project held at NDRC in Dublin.

The weekend-long event brought together almost 100 coders, designers, mentors and investors for an intensive period of peer-to-peer idea generation and programming focused on new thinking for banks and bank customers.

The Savetastic team will now avail of three months incubation at Ulster Bank with access to a number of mentors/ executives and specialists at Ulster Bank, to develop this idea into a commercial proposition.

Full list of prizewinners:
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[li type=”glyphicon-arrow-right”]1st prize winner – Savetastic.  Team members,  Alejandro Ricatti, Diego Alexandre, Kelson Martins, Ivan Tabarino.
Prize – Three months incubation, mentorship and access to executives and specialists at Ulster Bank. Each team member also received one Parrot AR 2 Drone, 2 with GPS
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[li type=”glyphicon-arrow-right”]2^nd prize winner – ‘Simply Confirm’ – An audit tool for SMEs and banks to more easily meet their audit risk requirements
Prize – each team member received each team member received a Go Pro Hero 4
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[li type=”glyphicon-arrow-right”]3^rd prize winner – ‘Owlwise’ – A fun game-style app to make banking and saving fun for teens
Prize – each team member received one set of Beats by Dr Dre headphones[/li]
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Simon Redfern, founder of the Open Bank Project and CEO of TESOBE said:
“We would like to congratulate Savetastic on their win at this weekend’s hackathon. The Open Bank Project is thrilled to be working with Ulster Bank on these events. It’s great to be engaging with the fintech communities in Dublin and Belfast and it has been exciting to see this process working in Ireland following a successful series of events we’ve held across Europe. As this weekend has shown, there’s no limit to the ideas that can be explored and we’re thoroughly looking forward seeing what emerges in Belfast in two weeks’ time.”

Judges at the event were Dermot Berkery of Delta Partners, Louise Hodgson, entrepreneur, Undergraduate Awards and editor ‘New Thinking, New Ireland’, Marc O’Dwyer, CEO, Big Red Cloud, Brett Myers, CEO of CurrencyFair and Chris Davis, COO of Ulster Bank.

More information is available at http://www.hackmakethebank.com/go/ulster-bank/