The event, which will take place April 9-12, aspires to be the world’s largest online hackathon, encouraging collaboration across multiple companies and business sectors.

Two weeks ago, Estonia with Garage48 in the forefront, started a ripple effect by organising an online hackathon to tackle issues related to Covid-19. Soon after, Latvia and Lithuania followed suit with hackathons partly supported by Swedbank.

Lotta Lovén, head of digital banking & IT at Swedbank, says: “In these turbulent times, it is vital that we join forces on a global level to find innovative solutions to help fight these challenges in an effective way."

The Global Hack is organised in 11 tracks inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Each of the tracks is a separate global online hackathon, that will all join in the end of the event for centralised evaluations and conclusions.

Swedbank is sponsoring the Global Hack's economy track, in the hope of inspiring new prototypes, concepts and innovative use of technology to help keep markets moving.

“This hackathon movement was born in three of our four home markets, so it is very natural for us to support it, and we encourage both our employees, customers and peers to register and join the event," says Lovén. "By funding the organization of the Economy track, we not only dive into topics that will help our customers and industry through these unprecedented times, but the results will also support the local communities and the society as a whole."

The Global Hack is supported by several global organisations and companies, including the European Commission, The World Health Organisation, The World Economic Forum, The Global Entrepreneurship Network, LinkedIn, TED, Reddit and Slack.