Fintech hackathon · Bank hackathon · API hackathon Stockholm
Fintech, bank and API hackathons in Stockholm
What a bank hackathon is for, how to run an API hackathon in Stockholm that produces pipeline rather than pizza boxes, and the banking and fintech APIs builders can use.
The short answer
A fintech hackathon is one of the few formats where a bank's developers, product people and go-to-market leads spend a whole day with your API. Done well, it produces working prototypes, named leads and a day's worth of content. Done badly, it produces pizza boxes. The difference is the problem statement, the guest list and the follow-up.
Case: the Embedded Finance Build Day
On 25 August 2026, at A House by Slussen in Stockholm, we ran a vendor-neutral, one-day hackathon where developers and go-to-market leads, including people from financial institutions, built finance agents on real banking APIs. Partners were Open Payments, Zwapgrid, Danske Bank, Froda, Worldline and Dun & Bradstreet, with Solvapay. In short, the Embedded Finance Build Day on 25 August 2026 cost SEK 25,000 and no paid advertising: 98 registrations, 72 approved places, 44 builders in 15 teams, 15 working prototypes, 26 companies in the room and 14 warm leads at SEK 1,785 each. Seven of fifteen teams chose the same problem on their own, which is product validation you cannot buy.
142 organisations were reached organically, including target accounts such as SEB Embedded, Fortnox, Klarna and Insurely whose people engaged without registering. Pipeline value is an estimate and reported separately; see the case study and our track record.
Smaller formats work too. The Payment Layer: Build Night by SolvaPay on 15 June 2026 at Antler in Stockholm brought builders together for demos and a few hours of building on payments for AI agents, with Kindly, Zwapgrid and SolvaPay.
Fintech hackathon, bank hackathon or API hackathon?
| Format | Who builds | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Fintech hackathon | Startup teams, students, developers | Ideas and talent around a fintech theme |
| Bank hackathon | Teams from banks, often with fintechs | New products on the bank's own data and systems, internal change |
| API hackathon | Developers from your target customers | Adoption of one or more APIs, and leads for the API providers |
Our build days sit between the last two: closed, curated guest lists, real banking APIs, and builders who work at the companies the partners want to sell to.
How to run a bank or API hackathon that produces pipeline
- One problem statement your buyers already care about. Not “innovate in payments”.
- Sandboxes that work at 9 am. Test data, keys and docs ready before the day; a partner engineer on hand.
- A curated guest list. Approve every seat. The value is who builds, not how many.
- Mentors from the banks. People from a bank on the floor make the day worth attending for everyone else.
- A jury and a deadline. Working prototypes demoed by the end of the day.
- Content from the room. Every team and partner posts; that is where the organic reach comes from.
- Follow-up within a week, by name, and counted results reported separately from estimates.
Banking and fintech APIs builders can use
Companies from our hackathon research that offer APIs, data or platforms teams can build on. Being listed does not mean a company has taken part in one of our events.
Nium+270
Nium provides global payments infrastructure, offering real-time cross-border payouts, card issuance, stablecoin services and FX through a single API.
Hummingbird+200
Hummingbird makes an AI-powered risk and compliance operations platform that helps financial institutions screen customers, monitor transactions, run investigations and file regulatory reports.
Lune+195
Lune provides an AI-driven real-time transaction data enrichment and intelligence platform for banks, neobanks and fintechs.
Veriff+195
Veriff provides identity verification software that checks documents, biometrics and databases to help businesses onboard real customers and stop fraud.
Scrive+185
Scrive is a European electronic signature and eID platform that helps businesses sign agreements, verify identities and automate onboarding in line with EU rules.
Boost+180
Boost.ai provides an enterprise conversational AI platform for building chat and voice virtual agents, focused on regulated industries.
Wealth Dynamix+180
Wealth Dynamix provides client lifecycle management (CLM), CRM and digital onboarding software for private banks and wealth management firms.
Glia+175
Glia provides an AI platform for community banks and credit unions that automates customer service, supports staff and helps grow loans and deposits.
Itransition Group+175
Itransition is a software engineering and digital transformation company that builds, modernizes and scales digital solutions for organizations.
Validis+175
Validis provides financial data infrastructure that connects to 100+ accounting systems and delivers standardized, AI-ready financial data for audit, lending and advisory firms.
Flanks+170
Flanks is a wealth data platform that aggregates, normalises and enriches client portfolio data from 700+ custodians into one AI-ready source for wealth institutions.
IDEMIA+170
IDEMIA provides biometric and cryptographic technologies that secure payments, connectivity, identity, access, travel and public safety.
More in the company profiles and the regtech and payments lists.
API and bank hackathons in Stockholm in 2027
We run build days and builder nights with partners who bring their APIs. Upcoming rooms are on Insider Events, starting with the End of Year Tech Demo on 15 December 2026. If you want to co-host a build day on your API, with banks in the room, talk to us.
Questions people ask
What is a bank hackathon?
A day or two where teams, often including people from banks, build prototypes on banking data and APIs around one problem. The best ones have curated guest lists, working sandboxes, bank mentors and a jury.
How much does a fintech hackathon cost?
It depends on size and venue. Our Embedded Finance Build Day in Stockholm cost SEK 25,000 with no paid advertising and produced 14 warm leads, SEK 1,785 per lead.
Is there an API hackathon in Stockholm in 2027?
We run build days and builder nights with API partners in Stockholm. Upcoming dates are on Insider Events; partners can also co-host their own build day with us.
How do you get value from sponsoring a hackathon?
Bring a working sandbox and an engineer, set a problem your buyers care about, make sure your target accounts are among the builders, and follow up with every team within a week.
Who comes to a bank hackathon?
At our Build Day: developers, product people and go-to-market leads, with co-founders, CTOs and Heads of Digital in the room, from 26 companies.