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BNP Paribas runs an international hackathon in partnership with Plug and Play to drive banking industry innovation.

International banking group BNP Paribas, in partnership with startup accelerator Plug and Play, is searching for the brightest minds to innovate and develop solutions for a broad range of banking challenges such as wealth management and smart security solutions.

From June 9 to 11, the bank will host 36-hour hackathons across Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Luxembourg, Nanjing, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, and Warsaw, open to startups with various fields of expertise. The Singapore hackathon, in particular, is looking for startups focused on AI chatbots, natural language processing, data aggregation, and analytics.

Also read: As 2017 walks in, get yourself ready to face these cyber security threats

The hackathon will culminate in a pitching event where startups will demonstrate and present their solutions to a panel of fintech experts, with the victors winning the opportunity to engage in a 5-month co-working phase with BNP Paribas and S$10,000 prize money.

At the end of the co-working phase, selected startups will go on a final pitch event in Paris, competing with the winning startups from the other cities, pitching their solutions to a panel consisting of members of the BNP Paribas executive team.

The final winning team will be announced in December 2017 and will win a cash prize of 10,000 euros.

Partnerships for innovation

Mr Jupe Tan, SVP of Plug and Play global operations said: “Plug and Play is excited to be partnering with BNP Paribas across three continents for the BNP Paribas Accelerator program and we are looking forward in helping to accelerate the success of the start-ups selected in Singapore.”

Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Plug and Play is renowned for having made investments in big name players such as Dropbox, PayPal, LendingClub, and Soundhound during their infancies. Plug and Play is scaling up activities in Southeast Asia and is partnering with regional and global corporations across different verticals in both Singapore and Indonesia to source for and develop startups in Southeast Asia.

Recently, Plug and Play announced the 11 startups selected to participated in the first batch of its accelerator programme in Indonesia, after a gruelling two-month selection process from over 400 applicants. While in Singapore, 6 startups were announced in the first batch of Startup Autobahn Singapore, an automotive industry-focused programme that Plug and Play launched in partnership with Daimler and Mercedes-Benz. These programme, including the international hackathon, are the first of many that Plug and Play are planning for the region.

Application for the international hackathon is open until June 7, 2017. Click here to enter your startup.

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Feature image credit: etiamos / 123RF Stock Photo

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