More than 200 people and over 25 teams participated in the BoC Fintech Hackathon 5.0, held at the IDEA Innovation Centre in Nicosia from October 18 to 20, 2024. The organizing Bank of Cyprus reported that the number of participants exceeded all expectations.

The BoC Fintech Hackathon 5.0 is the fifth marathon for developing innovative applications in the field of financial transactions, organized in Cyprus by the Bank of Cyprus. During the three-day marathon, teams developed innovative applications related to the Hackathon's thematic areas, resulting in exceptional ideas and solutions.

In a statement from the Bank of Cyprus, it was mentioned that the BoC Fintech Hackathon 5.0 started on Friday, October 18, with a Kick Off Meeting, where the process and all available tools and resources were explained to the participants. The teams worked on implementing their ideas, utilizing new technologies, the Jinius APIs, BoC APIs, and the BoC SDK throughout the weekend. The process was supported by 25 mentors.

The first place and €5,000 went to the Moctezuma team, proposing a real-time processing system for managing and trading real estate through tokenization.

In second place were two teams, Electra and Vasilkoff!, with the Bank of Cyprus deciding to award each team €3,000. Electra presented an application that combines real-time energy monitoring, making data available to customers through integrated dashboards, and incorporates the BoC payment API to automate energy payments. Vasilkoff proposed an application for loan approval instantly via AI in 1 minute of conversation or voice command, with white-label customization options for banks and retailers to enhance customer experience and strengthen their brand.

The third place and €2,000 prize went to the Pockit team for a smart AI assistant designed to help users easily manage their savings.

The award for Best Use of Jinius APIs and €2,000 was granted to the Memoirme team for creating a SaaS that helps families and individuals celebrate moments with their loved ones through digital memories.

Additionally, Cyta Business enhanced the BoC Hackathon with its advanced technological infrastructure, Hyperfast Broadband Internet 50G-PON, providing speeds of up to 30Gbps, while the University of Nicosia awarded a scholarship to the first team, Moctezuma. Furthermore, two exclusive positions at the CYENS TechHub were awarded to the Electra team.

The Entrepreneurship Center Award went to the Electra team, while all teams received Azure credits from Microsoft. Finally, 5 hours of mentoring on security topics were given to the Memoirme and Pick The Bank teams.

The Pick The Bank team proposed functionality that allows the Bank of Cyprus to integrate financial products offered by other financial institutions into its BoC online banking system.

The BoC Fintech Hackathon 5.0 was implemented with the organizational and technical support of Crowdpolicy and the advisory support of the Greek Fintech Cluster.