AIA hosts hackathon challenge for local and international IT companies and start-ups

Sri Lanka’s Best Life Insurance Company (awarded by Global Banking and Finance Review for 2019 and 2020) AIA Insurance kicked off AIA Sri Lanka Hackathon Challenge 2021, on August 19, 2021.

Both local and international technology companies and start-ups were invited to submit their proposals before September 19, 2021 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 part of AIA’s Technology, Digital and Analytics (TDA) Journey.  

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), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and 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, 2021, at the AIA Demo Day. 

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

AIA Sri Lanka Chief Executive Officer Nikhil Advani said, “At AIA, we are transforming the life insurance industry in Sri Lanka through our promise of helping our customers, employees and the communities that we serve to live healthier, longer, better lives. With innovations like the introduction of telemedicine services and other app-based unique health and wellness offerings to our customers, implementing robotic automation processes and offering advanced payment systems and solutions, AIA is truly ahead of the competition in terms of technological innovation. With 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.”

AIA Sri Lanka Director IT and Chief Technology Officer Umeshi de Fonseka added, “We are proud to be able to introduce yet another industry-first initiative that will not only help AIA Sri Lanka to find solutions to provide a superior and efficient service to our customers but will also help fintech and insurtech companies to implement their amazing solutions as part of our transformation journey in embracing emerging technologies.”