ICICI Bank Announces Winners of the ‘ICICI Appathon 2019’ Challenge

ICICI Bank announced the winners of ‘ICICI Appathon 2019’, the third season of its mobile and web application development challenge. The ‘Grand Finale’ of the ‘ICICI Appathon 2019’ saw Sreejith PP & Vivek Aithal from Bengaluru; Vaibhav Maheshwari & Ujjwal Kumar from Surat and Rishabh Singh from Chennai taking home the top honours for developing the next generation banking applications focusing on UPI 2.0.

Over 400 participants including developers and start-ups from across the globe took part in the contest which offered more than 100 APIs (Application Programme Interface) from the Bank as well as programme partner Experian Credit Information Company of India. The participants created innovative working prototypes of mobile and web applications around new features of UPI 2.0 such as pre-authorization of a UPI transaction, verifying details of an invoice before paying, linking an overdraft account to UPI and additional security in the form of signed intent/QR while making a payment. The eminent jury adjudged the winners on the basis of five criteria: innovation around UPI 2.0, functionality, business potential, relevance & scalability and user experience.

The jury comprised of Mr. Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank; Mr. B. Madhivanan, Chief Technology & Digital Officer, ICICI Bank; Mr. Sai Sadagopan, Head - India Digital, TCS; Mr. Sunil Mishra, Head - Ecosystem Innovation Group, Infosys Finacle; Mr. Amey Mashelkar, Head, JioGenNext; Mr. Ashish Singhal, Managing Director, Experian Credit Information Company of India and Mr. Balaji V. V., Head – Business Technology Group, ICICI Bank.

The first winning application focused on bid and auction model for booking a cab via any ride hailing app. The first runner up emphasized on using feature of UPI 2.0 to link UPI to OD account while the second runner up focused on enabling UPI payments without internet.

Mr. B. Madhivanan, Chief Technology & Digital Officer, ICICI Bank said, “We at ICICI Bank continue to seek opportunities to partner with the wider fintech ecosystem to re-imagine, ideate and execute things which interest our customers and add value to them. In line with this vision, we have been conducting ICICI Appathon for the last three years. The programme has enabled us to tap into the minds of talented technopreneurs in the country as well as developers globally and helped us cater to our customers better.

We are extremely happy to note the interest that ICICI Appathon has garnered this year with over 400 participants. We have got some interesting ideas which we believe will enable development of breakthrough solutions using UPI 2.0 that will make banking simpler than ever before. We will continue to promote innovation in every aspect of our business and ICICI Appathon will continue to evolve as a perfect platform for the young and creative minds to come together and showcase their innovations.”

Mr. Venkatramana Gosavi, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Sales, Infosys Finacle said "Digitisation is transforming the banking business, enabling banks to augment and enrich their value propositions through ecosystem offerings. As the principal technology partner for ICICI Bank, we are happy to continue our support towards the ICICI Appathon, now in its third edition. It has proven to be a global platform to enable startups, independent developers and other players to convert their ideas into real world propositions”.

"TCS is delighted to be the title partner for the third edition of the ICICI Appathon. This collaboration with ICICI Bank harnesses the abundance of innovation talent available within India's start up ecosystem and developer community, and opens up entrepreneurial opportunities in the exciting world of next generation payments. Congratulations to all the winners”, said Mr. Ujjwal Mathur, VP & Country Head - India Business, TCS.

The top three winners will get the following rewards:

·         Total prize money of over Rs 10 lakh from TCS, Infosys EdgeVerve and Experian.

·         A potential engagement opportunity with ICICI Bank.

·         An opportunity for the finalists to get a fast-track entry to Finacle ‘Fintech Connect’, a programme for FinTechs to co-innovate with Finacle to accelerate banking innovation.

As ‘ICICI Appathon’ APIs were available on a developer platform, over 400 participants took part in it from across the globe. While nearly half of the participants were among the age-group of 20-29 years, nearly 20% participated from non - metro cities like Rae Bareli, Nagpur, Erode and other places. Further, it also witnessed significant participation from women technopreneurs also.