What happened at the Seerbit Future of Payment Hackathon

The long-anticipated Seebit Future of Payment Hackathon Demo day was a massive success as planned. The event occurred on Zoom on the 23rd of November 2022 at 12:00 pm (WAT).

With over 250 registered participants and 17 projects submitted, the demo day featured 8 innovative teams, Seerbit’s very own Adebola Adefarati as the event’s anchor, and the four esteemed judges of the event.

As per Seeebit and Consonance's quest for excellence and evaluating solutions that would stand the test of time, they had a team of outstanding judges present on the Demo day.

The Demo day was graced by judges like Dr. Yinka Ayedeji of the Equity bank group, Omoniyi Kolade founder and CEO of Serbit, Gail Frederick from Salesforce, and the head of membership and growth at Innovative finance Rashee Bandey.

Attentive followers would recall that registration for the hackathon closed on the 10th of November 2022, after which the applicants were onboarded. They were given a time frame to build their innovative solutions, as the teams of Consonance, Seerbit, and the partner companies worked behind the scenes to get things ready. The deadline for the submission was the 20th of November after which shortlisted teams were contacted.

While we waited for demo day, Consonance gave away some classic branded merchandise from the host company Seerbit, on Twitter to incentivize supportive followers and participants of the event. The tweet contained instructions on how to enter the giveaway. It all came down to the first three people to find the 11 words in the crossword puzzle related to the Hackathon. As you might have guessed we didn't make the puzzle an easy one, but in a matter of minutes, the comments section was full of puzzle solutions from committed fans of the hackathon.

To kick off the demo day, the teams were commended for their commitment and dedication to the hackathon and Africa. They were briefed on how the event would play out, as well as how much time would be allocated to each team for their presentation. They were also informed that they would be in the spotlight for 5 minutes, during which they were required to pitch their innovative solutions while giving their very best shot.

The shortlisted teams present were team DiffusePay, Xpay, Symbols, Neon, Exousia, Luka Finance, Pfumamugaba, and Nama. The payment solutions were indeed innovative and tailored down to Africa’s very needs and the teams really brought their A games.

DiffusePay really looked into the trauma aspect of transactions by creating a cashless solution for all point-of-sales services. At one point or other banked individuals experience the pain that comes from being stranded as a result of failed transactions. Africa called and the DiffusePay team answered by providing freedom and confidence to make transactions effortlessly.

Luka finance is a team of 4 innovative youths consisting of a product manager, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and a full stack developer. This team really showed us that they pay close attention to the trends and statistics that matter.

They have a compassionate solution for the talents of a company because they believe that employees should have funds always. They believe that if not "all" 50% of their accrued wage should be accessible to them before payday, at no interest rate and 5% transaction fee. They efficiently integrated Seerbit's API into their solution among others.

Nama is an aggrotech project with the ambitious goal of addressing food security challenges in Nigeria and possibly Africa. The plan includes the use of Seerbit's payment system (pocket) to transfer funds from one end to another. They are focused on quick logistic services to avoid food wastage.

Neon consists of a team that believes that the future of payments is indeed automation, and they came with proof. Accepting payments is quite easy for any business, but to avoid going manually, there needs to be a way to have it on autopilot. They intend to automate the entire payment process for the K 12 target market.

The system built by Neon is one that has got the entire payment system of K-12 schools covered. A few of these systems are the lunch, uniform, gym, and even excursions. They also have the option to pay annually or in instalments and the schools get dashboards and filter systems.

Xpay consists of a team of innovative youths as ambitious as all other teams and they have plans to show for it. Xpay is a B2B2C platform that enables the payment and receipt of payments across Africa. The goal is to bank the unbanked people in Africa, and the plan includes defying geographical locations to help merchants get results.

It is important to note that with Xpay, regular ATM cards, local bank transfers, USSD, and customizable invoices are available. It is interesting however to see a payment solution that works to close the huge gap of financial inclusion, irrespective of the location.

Symble is right on time with an entertainment solution like no other. It makes sense to enable businesses and creators to share and monetize their content and product in real time. This innovation draws inspiration from the simplicity of how the Bumpa app synced their e-commerce stores with Meta-powered social media platforms. Now creators and businesses can sell and monetize their content and product in real time.

Excousia is a creditworthiness platform. With this solution, you can tell companies that offer payments in instalments for goods and services to do it smarter and better. Companies that offer these services can now take calculated and well-informed risks through proper scrutiny of potential customers.

Using the solar energy market case study, they proved that most transactions are made in instalments in that sector. This solution would make the solar sector more thorough in its approach.

Pfumamugaba (Mukando) is a secure trust-based “Piggy bank” mobile application that enables group savings towards a particular similar agenda. Members not only have similar goals to achieve, but they also have trust in one another. This method gives you the motivation you need in form of pressure to achieve your goals. They are a set of rules and objectives set by the savings club for each member and they are also no lengthy forms to be filled out as is the common practice. You are also given the opportunity to join multiple savings clubs as this helps them to achieve multiple set goals.

It has been reported that viewers were glad they clicked the zoom link for the Demo day. The payment solutions cut across almost every sector including education, business, entertainment, and more, and we know that Africa’s future is really bright.

The judges really have a tough job, and we are almost glad we are not them.

For the partners of this Hackathon, it was “Demo day, Happy day!”, they were excited to see their efforts in the publicity and content for the event pay off. Their time and resource investment paid off in leaps and bounds through the outstanding innovative solutions tabled by the teams on the demo day.

The journey has just started and won't stop now. The team at Consonance and Seerbit are committed to making an impact in Africa and we are just in time.

All fingers crossed and we patiently wait for the announcement of the winners of the Seerbit Future of Payment Hackathon which will take place at the Devfest Lagos on the 26th of November 2022.

Editor's Note: This content was provided by Seerbit's marketing team.