Over 100 developers from 15 teams crammed into a co-working space at Fishburners in Sydney for the launch of MasterCard's first-ever global hackathon series, exceeding the card scheme's aspirations for the event.
The Sydney installment of MasterCard's Masters of Code competition had a focus on innovating for mobile commerce, with the teams competing for a place in the grand final in Silicon Valley in December and the chance to win a $100,000 prize.
MasterCard kept the energy high over the intense 1.5 days of the challenge, with on-the-spot giveaways through the night like Sony PS4s and GoPro cameras and vast quantities of hot boxed pizzas.
The winning team, Coinr, used five separate MasterCard API data sets to create a digital piggybank that lets users save money by topping-up their change into a digital wallet at any MasterCard RePower location and then using MasterPass to pay.
The runner-up team, Seamless, used hardware and software for a shopping app around smart shelves and each member received prepaid cards valued at US$500.
Next stop for the Masters of Code event is Hong Kong, followed by Singapore in March. Future locations include cities in Brazil, Canada, Israel, Turkey, and the UK and US.