Money20/20 Announces The ‘Money20/20 Hackathon'

Teams to compete to build FinTech applications for a $125,000 prize pool and the chance to present to an audience of thousands

Money20/20, the world’s largest event for payments and financial services innovation, recently announced the launch of the ‘Money20/20 Hackathon’ to be held October 31 to November 2, 2014 at the Aria Resort & Casino convention facility in Las Vegas, immediately before the kick-off of 2014’s Money20/20, which will take place November 2-6.

The Money20/20 Hackathon will host hundreds of talented developers, designers and entrepreneurs who will compete in teams of one to five members over a 36-hour period. Each team will be challenged with developing FinTech applications using application programming interfaces (APIs), software development kits (SDKs) and other tools from 10 of the biggest innovators in payments and financial services, including Blockchain.info, Chain.com, MasterCard, Mercury Payment Systems (a Vantiv company), ModoPayments and PayPal.

Ten winning teams will share a total prize pool of $125,000, with five $20,000 and five $5,000 cash prizes provided by Money20/20. The overall winning team will also have the opportunity to present their solution as part of Money20/20’s exclusive Launchpad360, a program that provides companies with a forum to showcase their leading-edge innovation in front of an audience of thousands of investors, media and other ecosystem participants. Last year’s Launchpad360 participants have since raised more than $65M in venture capital funding.

Money20/20 will provide qualified participants with a $250 stipend to cover travel, lodging and other expenses. Participants can also join a series of other events, including a Halloween party on Friday evening as well as judging and awards ceremonies that conclude the proceedings on Sunday.

"What's exciting for Blockchain about participating in Money20/20 is being able to provide the most reputable, complete, reliable and fastest Bitcoin API product suite in the industry, which leading developers and creative minds can use to build software that will change the future of the payments industry,” said Nicolas Cary, chief executive officer of Blockchain.info. “We are already the industry leading provider of APIs for thousands of Enterprise Bitcoin businesses, and we look forward to being that same partner for thousands more to come."

"Chain is the leading platform for bitcoin developers, and what better way to showcase how these developers are shaping the world's financial future than to challenge them to invent it at the world's most important financial technology event,” said Adam Ludwin, chief executive officer of Chain.com. “We are thrilled to see how developers will re-think everything from payments to financial derivatives using bitcoin, and we will be there to support them every step of the way."

“At MasterCard, we are focused on making the developer experience as seamless and as easy as possible when they integrate our products and services. We have a number of solutions and tools for developers to use, and provide easy access to a sandbox environment, which helps them experiment and test before they go live,” said Mario Shiliashki, group head and senior vice president, Open API and Emerging Payments, MasterCard. “Additionally, we work with developers and startups in a number of accelerator and incubator partnerships where we provide funding, advice, and access to the MasterCard product teams. The Money20/20 Hackathon provides an unparalleled opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs to help create great commerce and payments experiences.”

“We are excited to be a part of Money20/20, and proud to be a sponsor of the Hackathon,” said Matt Taylor, president, integrated payments at Mercury Payment Systems, a Vantiv company. “Mercury enables developers to build feature-rich and secure applications that enhance payment and marketing capabilities at point-of-sale (POS) systems across a wide variety of industries, including retail, restaurants, entertainment and auto, and the Hackathon will be a great chance to spur innovation in integrated payments.”

Bruce Parker, chief executive officer of ModoPayments, said: "Using Modo’s platform via our open API, any developer can build their own mobile app with the ability to perform in-store purchases at tens of thousands of store locations. Developers create the consumer’s buying experience including offers, rewards, and gifts, and Modo powers the payments and economics for all parties. Having spent several years working with some of the largest banks and processors in the country, we look forward to introducing our platform to a broader community and seeing what new ideas they come up with. It will be spellbinding to watch."

"PayPal is very pleased to be a 5 Star sponsor of 2014's Money20/20 and support the Money20/20 Hackathon and related activities at this year's event," said Michael Blandina, vice president, Payments & Credit Engineering, PayPal.

According to Simran R. Aggarwal, co-founder and president of Money20/20, the Money20/20 Hackathon will provide an ideal platform for third-party developer communities to drive innovation.

“The way people and businesses manage, spend and borrow money is changing, with transactions increasingly only part of more connected everyday activities,” said Aggarwal. “Open and interoperable platforms are enabling integrated innovations such as mobile wallets, seamless authentication and identification, omni-channel and micro-location shopping experiences, data-enriched services, cloud point-of-sale engagement and much more. We are proud to support innovation in payment and financial services as a core part of the Money20/20 experience.”

About Money20/20
Money20/20 is the world’s largest event enabling payments and financial services innovation for connected commerce at the intersection of mobile, retail, marketing services, data and technology. With 6,500+ attendees, including more than 500 CEOs, from over 2,250 companies and 50 countries, Money20/20 is critical to realizing the vision of disruptive ways in which consumers and businesses manage, spend and borrow money. The next Money20/20 will be held on Nov. 2-6, 2014 in Las Vegas, and will be preceded by the Money20/20 Hackathon, which runs Oct. 31-Nov. 2. For more information, visit www.money2020.com.