Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) announced the launch of UPI 2.0 Hackathon in partnership with NASSCOM and iSPIRT. The Kotak UPI 2.0 Hackathon is designed to motivate participating start-ups, fintechs and students to challenge the status quo and design innovative solutions encompassing merchant and enterprise payments on the newly launched UPI 2.0 platform.
Deepak Sharma, Chief Digital Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said “The payments and transaction landscape in the country has changed dramatically following the launch of UPI, and UPI 2.0 is expected to accelerate this transformation and cater to an even more diverse segment. With the country’s first UPI 2.0 Hackathon, our aim is to play the catalyst’s role to develop an innovative ecosystem by giving a platform to start-ups, fintechs and students to co-create enterprising solutions in the areas of merchant and enterprise payments. We are pleased to collaborate with NASSCOM and iSPIRT to offer a credible platform for bright and curious minds to deliver novel solutions.”
“Our Hackathon, an initiative of the ‘Kotak Innovation Lab’, will enable the developer community to get early access to a new set of APIs and create innovative use cases that will give a further boost to digital payments,” added Sharma.
Suresh Jayaraju, Senior Director & Head, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups said “We at NASSCOM 10,000 Startups strongly believe in encouraging young talent to showcase their skills in the latest technologies and are pleased to partner Kotak for the UPI 2.0 Hackathon. UPI has already revolutionised the Indian payments sector and the Hackathon will help usher in innovative ideas and boost alternative thinking in the arena of payment technologies. We will implement the best ideas jointly with Kotak.”
Pramod Varma, Fellow - iSPIRT, Advisor - NPCI and Chief Architect - Aadhaar said, "UPI is a technology platform that enables multiple use cases to be built. UPI 2.0 adds to UPI's existing features by making investing easier, enabling inward remittances from foreign countries, and opening up the possibilities of cash flow-based loans for businesses. We are glad that Kotak is taking this initiative in conducting a Hackathon around UPI 2.0. Such Hackathons are a great way to bring the developer community together and exploit the full potential of the UPI platform"
Applicants who wish to participate in the Hackathon can directly apply with their ideas around UPI 2.0 through Kotak’s website (https://www.kotak.com/en/digital-banking/upi-2-0-hackathon.html) till 31st August, 2018. Thereafter, all valid entries will get sandbox access to Kotak’s APIs, which can be used to develop a prototype of the idea. A final demo of the prototypes will be held in October, where winners of the Hackathon will be announced.
The Top 3 winners will take home cumulative prize money of Rs. 3.25 lakh. They, along with a few other shortlisted entries, will also get the opportunity to work with the Kotak Innovation Lab to jointly launch solutions in the market.
During the launch of UPI 2.0 on 16th August 2018, Kotak demonstrated the first live transaction on UPI 2.0 of “Invoice in a box”. The transaction showed how a Merchant/Biller/Enterprise can collect money from a customer over UPI and include a digital copy of the invoice in the UPI payment request.
