AIA Insurance hosts industry’s first ever hackathon challenge for local and international IT companies and start-ups

AIA Insurance kicked off the ‘AIA Sri Lanka Hackathon Challenge 2021’ on August 19. Both local and international technology companies and start-ups have been invited to submit their proposals before September 19 to stand a chance to win a total cash prize of US$5,000 and be given an opportunity to pioneer industry transforming solutions by being a part of AIA’s Technology, Digital and Analytics (TDA) Journey, the company said in a media release. 

It said the Sri Lankan insurance industry’s first of its kind Hackathon is hosted by AIA Insurance Lanka Limited, in partnership with the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN), a social impact initiative backed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the ASEAN Bankers Association (ABA). The event will be hosted on the API Exchange (APIX) platform – an initiative under AFIN and the world’s first cross-border, open architecture API marketplace and sandbox platform for collaboration between fintechs and financial institutions.

Participants will go head to head in identifying solutions to the two categories of problem statements available in the challenge, ‘E-KYC and Smart OCR’ and ‘Gamification based Customer Recommendation’. Ten finalists will then battle it out in an eight-week POC phase to bring their solution to life before the two winners are announced on December 6 at the AIA Demo Day.

The two winners will be awarded commendation plaques, a chance at winning a total cash prize of $5,000 and more importantly, the opportunity to work with AIA Sri Lanka to implement their solution.

Nikhil Advani, Chief Executive Officer at AIA Sri Lanka said, “With the ‘AIA Sri Lanka Hackathon Challenge 2021’ not only do we shine the spot light on deserving fintech and insurtech companies for their innovative solutions but it also allows us to implement better solutions and make improvements in our processes, which translates to our customers being able to enjoy a superior service experience.”

Victor Antonypillai, Acting Country Manager for IFC Sri Lanka and Maldives said: “We are happy to partner with AIA for their ‘AIA Sri Lanka Hackathon Challenge 2021’ on the APIX platform, that brings together technology and financial institutions to accelerate digital transformation—while helping to create a resilient, inclusive and a sustainable financial sector in Sri Lanka.”