The Money 2020 USA Hackathon in Las Vegas this year set a challenge of financial inclusion.

Reshud Dani and Jay Lohokara

“Help Visa create a future where consumers, families, or small businesses are able to reach their financial goals using innovative solutions. Join us to help solve the challenge of financial exclusion. Think about a use case for the following categories: cash free solutions, credit, access to financial education and business skills, identification verification.”

Sponsors included Synchrony, PayPal and Envestnet|Yodlee

Sunday morning at The Venetian’s Marco Polo ballroom looked seriously casual as developers put final touches on their apps or just slept at the tables while colleagues did the work. Many sported the Visa Developer Squad Hoodie and Visa Developer Blankets in blue and gold. Empty Coke cans and pizza box decorated table tops.

Working and napping after a long night

For the second year in a row, one of the top Visa teams that advanced to the Money 2020 hackathon finals won the overall grand prize (out of 80 top teams). In an effort to help send instant payments overseas, ViSync created an app designed to simplify and improve the remittance process to help migrant workers send money back to their home country, including the ability to set controls on how money is spent by the receiver and to enable the receiver to become banked.  The team used Visa Direct and Visa Transaction Controls APIs.