About the Hackathon

The Fintech Hackathon: Solve with AI is the largest student fintech hackathon in France. Organized by Sciences Po AI (SpY), ASES France (Stanford University × HEC Paris), and Google Developer Group Epita, it brings together 150 elite students in AI, finance, and entrepreneurship for a 24-hour non-stop hacking sprint at the heart of Paris's fintech ecosystem.

Taking place on April 25–26, 2026 at HEC Paris, participants will build AI-powered fintech solutions and pitch to a jury of top-tier investors, founders, and industry executives.

The Challenge

Theme: FinTech Innovation — Solve with AI

France is home to 11 unicorn fintech startups and is the premier fintech ecosystem in the EU. AI is reshaping financial services at every level — from payments and compliance to wealth management and fraud detection. Your mission: leverage AI to build the next breakthrough fintech product.

Teams are free to tackle any fintech problem they choose, as long as AI is at the core of their solution.

Areas of inspiration (non-exhaustive):

• AI-powered payments & transaction intelligence
• Fraud detection & compliance automation
• Personalized wealth management & robo-advisory
• Credit scoring & alternative lending
• RegTech, KYC/AML automation
• DeFi & blockchain-based financial products
• InsurTech powered by generative AI

Tracks : 

Our hackathon features three distinct tracks:

• B2B (Business-to-Business)
• B2C (Business-to-Consumer)
• B2G (Business-to-Government)

Challenging participants to build innovative solutions tailored for corporate efficiency, seamless user experiences, and modernized public services. The winer will be the most outstanding project from across all three tracks.

Event Format

• Duration: 24 hours non-stop
• Location: HEC Paris — full amphitheatre + 10 dedicated work rooms
• Participants: ~150 highly selected students
• Entry: Free
• Teams: 5 people

Schedule

Saturday, April 25

• 9:00–10:00 — Registration & team formation
• 10:00 — Opening ceremony & keynote
• 11:00 — Hacking begins 🚀
• 12:00 — Workshop: Google — Vibe-coding with Gemini (30 min)
• 14:00 — Workshop: Hg Capital — Agentic Coding (mandatory, 30 min)
• 00:00 — Midnight surprise 🃏

Sunday, April 26

• Morning — Hacking continues
• Afternoon — Pre-screening pitches (3 pods, 10 teams each, 5 min/team)
• Late afternoon — Final pitches: top 9 teams pitch to the full jury (5 min each)
• Evening — Awards ceremony & closing 🎉

Prizes

All participants receive $5 in Google Cloud credits and unlimited Lovable access for the 24 hours.

Organizers

This hackathon is brought to you by:

• ASES France — the French chapter of Stanford ASES (Association of Stanford Entrepreneurs), operating in partnership with HEC Paris
• Sciences Po AI (SpY) — the AI student association of Sciences Po Paris
• Google Developer Group Epita — Google's developer community in Epita

Partners & Sponsors

• Hg Capital — Main cash sponsor
• Google — Cloud credits, workshops & on-site mentors
• Lovable — Vibe-coding platform partner
• Station F — Co-working space prizes
• Cerebras — Fast and effortless AI training
• Red Bull — Energy & workshop partner

• Innovation & Originality (20%)
  Is the idea genuinely new? Does it address a real fintech pain point in a creative way that hasn't been done before?
• AI Integration (15%)
  How meaningfully is AI used? We're looking for AI at the core of the product — not just a chatbot wrapper. Bonus points for smart, creative use of the tools and APIs provided.
• Technical Execution (25%)
  Does it actually work? Judges will look at the GitHub repo, the live demo, and the overall quality of the build. A working prototype beats a beautiful deck every time.
• Business Viability (30%)
  Is there a real market? Does the team understand the problem space, the competition, and how this could scale? Could this become a company?
• Pitch & Presentation (10%)
  Is the project communicated clearly and compellingly in 3 minutes? Storytelling, clarity, and confidence all count.