Savetastic app comes out on top in banking hackathon

We all love to save a few bob. So it should come as no surprise that an app using a customer’s banking information to offer them savings emerged triumphant from Ulster Bank’s first banking hackathon.

Savetastic beat off 16 other ideas to secure the win in a weekend-long event that brought together almost 100 coders, designers, mentors and investors for an intensive period of “idea generation and programming” focused on “new thinking for banks and customers”.

The company will now be able to avail of three months incubation at Ulster Bank with access to mentors and executives to help develop this idea into a commercial proposition.

The hackathon was organised by Ulster Bank and global experts at the Open Bank Project, and held at the NDRC in Dublin’s Liberties.

Simply Confirm, an audit tool for SMEs and banks to more easily meet their audit risk requirements, was the runner-up, while Owlwise, a “fun game-style app to make banking and saving fun for teens”, was third.

Each group was mentored by technical, design, investor and banking advisers to help sharpen their ideas into a proposition to pitch to the judges.

To keep the momentum going, Ulster Bank is planning a second event in Belfast, although you wouldn’t want to be the superstitious type. It starts on Friday the 13th.