The challenge: design and build a system to give the world’s underbanked people access to financial services — in under 24 hours.
Following the >Play Hackathon’s 24 hours of coding, the School of Information emerged victorious; two separate teams of I School students were selected as the hackathon finalists and invited to present their prototypes and product pitches to a panel of judges at the >Play Conference in San Francisco.
“The whole experience was kind of overwhelming,” said Renu Bora, a first-year MIMS student participating in his first hackathon. “Starting with nothing, and then coming out with a full-blown presentation and business plan and an app that works — it was pretty crazy!”
When the students arrived at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business Friday evening for the hackathon’s first round, there were so many I School students interested that they had to divide up and work on two separate projects. Twenty-four hours later, both teams were honored as finalists.
Banga: a mobile remittances solution
The winning project was Banga, a mobile remittances solution that allows people to provide financial support for the people closest to them living in developing countries. Banga addresses an important need by allowing the remittance sender to create spending controls, so they can be confident that the remittance is spent responsibly. Banga charges significantly lower fees and transmits remittances faster than currently available options by utilizing the Bitcoin protocol, which enables Banga to convert and transmit currency with greater efficiency than traditional systems are capable of achieving. Remittance senders and recipients reap the benefits of the Bitcoin protocol without having to understand or interact with it.
Banga was developed by MIMS students Brian Bloomer and Eunkwang Joo and visiting student Dirk de Wit.
Mkopo: a social-media app for collective loans
The second finalist was Mkopo, a social-media app named after the Swahili word for “loans.” Mkopo makes it fast and easy for underbanked individuals to form groups in order to get collective loans, also known as solidarity loans, including micro-loans and emergency or “payday” loans. Solidarity loans have been practiced for many years, but Mkopo simplifies and enhances the borrowers’ loan group formation, loan group management, loan applications, and loan repayment. The collective nature of the loan emphasizes the social obligation to repay it, and can also strengthen the community ties.
Mkopo was developed by MIMS students Arezu Aghaseyedjavadi, Pablo Arvizu, Renu Bora, and Max Gutman and visiting student Tom Quast.
A week later, the Banga and Mkopo teams returned for the finals at the >Play Conference, held October 25 at San Francisco’s Nikko Hotel. This year’s >Play Conference, organized by Berkeley’s Haas School of Busines, drew hundreds of technology professionals and students to focus on the future of digital media. Keynote speakers included Facebook CIO Tim Campos, Lyft co-founder Logan Green, and Andreessen Horowitz partner Michael Copeland.
After spending the intervening week polishing their presentations, business plans, and prototypes, the eight students presented their work to the panel of judges; the judges included executives from hackathon sponsors Visa and GoDaddy, as well as senior Silicon Valley technologists and venture capitalists. The judges awarded the $5000 first-place prize to Banga and the $1000 second-place prize to Mkopo.
The I School secret
The twin victory was not an I School first; MIMS student Peter Nguyen was on last year’s winning team, and I School teams have won other recent hackathons.
So why are I School students so successful at this sort of project? Participants had several theories.
The theme of financial inclusion may have resonated with I School students, suggested Renu Bora. The Banga team capitalized on Brian Bloomer’s extensive experience with Bitcoin, which served as the basis for the project. Several members of the Mkopo team were already interested in ICTD (information and communication technology and development), developing for mobile devices, social media, or the intersection of the three.
“There’s also something about having diverse teams and an interdisciplinary approach,” Bora said. “Students at the I School come from really, really different backgrounds, with skills ranging from user experience to business to the actual engineering. I think that covering the technology holistically is key.”
