DBS looks to attract brightest tech talents through global hackathon

DBS Bank has launched a global hackathon that attracted over 1,000 participants across 25 markets including Brazil, Germany and the US.

Named Paradigm Shift, the hackathon focuses on building a customer-centric approach to developing cutting-edge services for digitally-savvy customers.

As banks continue to face stiff competition from non-financial companies, they must reinvent and disrupt themselves in order to stay relevant, said Soh Siew Choo, Managing Director and Head of Consumer Banking and Big Data Analytics Technology, DBS Bank. “This requires us to have a fundamental shift in the way we think and operate, so as to build a superior user experience for our customers.”

Photo courtesy: unsplash
Photo courtesy: unsplash

DBS is looking to attract submissions from the brightest technology talents globally, including developers, data scientists, behavioural scientists, UX/UI designers. Through the hackathon, DBS is looking to find teams with creative concepts that will make banking effortless, so customers can focus more on the things that matter to them.

The best performing teams could land a job at DBS, and teams with the most impressive solutions will stand a chance to win cash and prizes. The total prize purse is USD100,000 (SGD138,000), one of the highest in the world.

The DBS Paradigm Shift global hackathon will take place from 28 May to 22 September. It is supported by partners such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Capgemini, Microsoft, QuantumBlack and Telstra. Over 17 weeks, the teams will take their inspiration to a concept to a working prototype. The hackathon will focus on the use of technologies such as machine learning, IoT, AR/VR, to build a better customer experiences. Teams will be judged on the novelty of their concepts, relevance and impact.