The first every Hajj Hackathon was held a couple of days ago from August 1st to 3rd in Jeddah where it brought together almost 3,000 innovators from all around the world to contribute in providing a solution that would improve the experience of pilgrims. Not only that, but the event has broken the Guinness World Record to become the world’s largest hackathon!
But we haven’t announced our favorite part yet! Can you guess who won the hackathon? Feminists are going to love this.
The first place winners were a team of four Saudi women who received over $265,000 (15% of the equity) for their Android mobile application called Tarjuman – an app that helps pilgrims translate the signboards to any language without an internet connection.
The finalists pitched their innovative solutions in front of a jury panel of prominent figures including Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, Mike Butcher from TechCrunch, Abdulhameed Sharara from RiseUp, and other local and international experts.
What about the other teams?
The second place went to an Egyptian team of three developers who won over $130,000 (for 10% of the equity). Their solution was a Hajj Wallet, where pilgrims can use to pay for products and services during their Hajj or Umrah. With the Hajj Wallet, they can deposit money through any of the Hajj Wallet’s merchant partners of their credit cards. They can also use the wallet to transfer moey to other users or pay at vendors through a QR code.
On the other hand, the third prize of $100,000 (for 7.5% of the equity) went to an Algerian team where they created a solution to automatically map a person’s location in Hajj and be able to take pictures and share it with the rest of the family to keep them aware about their whereabouts.
The Hajj Hackathon is held organized by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones in partnership with Google and Egypt’s RiseUp.