Appathon 2016 was organized by UniCredit together with its subsidiary, UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, which serves as the Group's global services company.

"Responsiveness and flexibility in execution are key to promoting long-term growth and resilience," said Paolo Fiorentino, Deputy General Manager of UniCredit. "That is why UniCredit is upgrading its digital ecosystem via partnerships, investments and an open API infrastructure that allows for crowdsourcing and the integration of new systems." The company is seeking to promote a culture of innovation both within and beyond the bank, explained Fiorentino. Appathon is designed to strengthen the Group's ability to attract the best talent and to drive it forward on multiple fronts.

The Appathon features teams from 70 cities in 26 European countries, with the most coming from Italy (32 teams), Great Britain (22 teams), France (9 teams) and Ireland (7 teams).
Ten international teams were selected to present their projects at UniCredit Tower Hall in Milan. The teams were asked to develop one of the following products:

· Digital payments (in compliance with PSD2)
out of 68 applications 4 finalists (2 from Ireland, 1 from Italy and 1 from Latvia)
· Digital wallets
out of 67 applications 4 finalists (3 from Italy and 1 from UK)
· Instantaneous delivery of complex information using big-data analytics
out of 56 applications 2 finalists (1 from Italy and 1 from Russia)

Following each team's presentation, their app was assessed by a jury composed of senior managers from both UniCredit and UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions. The jury applied six criteria in evaluating each app: technology, completeness, innovation, feasibility, subject matter and API relevance.

After tallying all the votes, the winners were announced.

First prize, the opportunity to collaborate with a team from UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, valued at €50,000, was presented to SBDA, a team from Dublin, Ireland, who developed "Smartbanking," an app that suggests ways to save money based on your daily shopping habits, bills, travels, etc.

Second prize, two tickets to Finovate London 2017, went to Sedicii, a team from Waterford, Ireland, who developed a solution that protects sensitive data during online transactions.

Third prize, a virtual reality headset, went to All Industries, a team from Rome, Italy, who developed "TalkForce," a digital financial assistant that uses artificial intelligence to enable customers to do everything from checking their balance to paying bills online.