Starting tomorrow, BME and BBF Fintech bring together startups, students and entrepreneurs at Hack&Disrupt!

• The second edition of the first international hackathon focused on solving challenges on sustainable finance will distribute 5,000 euros in prizes
• The meeting features Bilbao Plaza Financiera, the Bilbao City Council, BBK, Mondragon Team Academy and the Provincial Council of Vizcaya as collaborators

For the second consecutive year, BME and BBF Fintech will host Hack&Disrupt! in Bilbao, the first international fintech and insurtech hackathon to solve sustainable finance challenges. The event, which will begin tomorrow and conclude on Saturday, April 2, will be held at the Bilbao Stock Exchange and BBF's headquarters, Bilbao Berrikuntza Faktoria. A hundred people, including business professionals, students, entrepreneurs and startups, has registered for this event, which will distribute 5,000 euros in prizes.

You can check the event’s agenda and register on this link.

Tomorrow, 1 April, at 12:30 hrs, the institutional opening will be held, with the participation of Javier Hernani, CEO of BME; Ainara Basurko, Member of Vizcaya’s Provincial Council for Economic Promotion; Xabier Ochandiano, Councillor for Economic Development, Trade and Employment of the Bilbao City Council, and Lander Beloki, Dean of the University of Mondragón’s Business Administration Faculty.

This will be followed by the round table discussion "Ethical finance as a value proposition", which will have the presence of Berta Ares, General Manager of BME Inntech; Oihane Aldayturriaga, Head of Education, Entrepreneurship and Talent at the Foundation BBK, and Óscar Ugarte, General Manager of Seed Capital. The round table will be moderated by Maitane Martín Crego, coordinator of the BBF Fintech incubator. At 13:45 hrs there will be a speech by Mikel Garcia-Prieto, General Manager of Triodos Bank Spain.

Friday’s session will conclude with the presentation of the two challenges, which will be given by Kutxabank and the Basque Network of Education in Ethical and Alternative Finance, in Bilbao Berrikuntza Faktoria, from 4:30 pm. This will be followed by a table featuring key aspects and experiences in the resolution of challenges in ethical finance, before the distribution of work spaces and the start of the challenges’ resolution. On Saturday, in the same space, several mentoring sessions will be held to answer questions (at noon), preceding the submission of presentations with the solutions (at 3:30 pm) and the pitching of projects to the jury (at 4 pm). At 6 pm it will be time for the awards ceremony and the afterparty.

"With the second edition of Hack & Disrupt! we reaffirm BME's commitment to Bilbao as a financial marketplace of reference and to promoting innovation in such a thriving field as sustainable finance. Every day we see how digitalisation is a key element in the task of building a more sustainable economy and I am sure that this weekend we will learn a lot from the participants in the hackathon," said Javier Hernani, CEO of BME.

The second edition of Hack&Disrupt! has the collaboration of Bilbao Plaza Financiera, the Bilbao City Council, BBK, Mondragon Team Academy and the Provincial Council of Vizcaya.

The BBF Fintech incubator is a public-private initiative that started 3 years ago, promoted by the City Council of Bilbao, the Provincial Council of Vizcaya through Beaz, Mondragon Unibertsitatea and Dominion. Its goal is to incubate new businesses around finance and technology, as well as accelerating existing companies in this field.