Filipino team bags grand prize at Finastra global hackathon

Manila-based Team WonderTech won the grand prize at Finastra Universe New York, a global fintech hackathon, last March 11. The competition, hosted by fintech player Finastra, saw more than 1,000 participants across 38 countries inventing over 240 new apps.

Team WonderTech is a team of young professionals and students composed of Michael Puzon, Vaniza Dagangon, John Robert Tubale, and Clyde Palattao. Their winning app, Agree Farm, aims to give rural Filipino farmers access to bank loans, and was built in just a few weeks using Finastra’s open development platform, FusionFabric.cloud.

Agree Farm also bagged an award for “Future of Payment & Banking for a Better Future”, one of five categories, namely “Future of Capital Markets”, “Future of Corporate Banking”, “Future of Retail Banking”, and “Best App by an Established Fintech”. Each winner will be able to continue refining their solutions, for promotion in Finastra’s FusionStore.

“Fintech is one of the hottest growth and innovation areas, with some serious investment from banks, private equity, VC and government,” said Shuki Licht, Chief Innovation Officer at Finastra. “Team WonderTech and all of the category winners have demonstrated an incredible ability to understand the needs of the market and have shown that the future of finance is truly open.”