ALFRD Hackathon: Building the financial infrastructure of tomorrow
An ALFRD hackathon, co-hosted with The Hack Collective. Venue partner: University of Westminster.
Early registration is now open. This is a curated room: every application is reviewed, and we're selecting a mix of builders, designers and finance minds who'll push each other. Apply early.
AI is already rewriting how finance works. Over the last two years, the reconciliations, reporting and close processes that once took teams weeks have started to run themselves. But this is only the beginning of a much bigger shift across the whole financial ecosystem, and the fintech and finance operations (FinOps) roles of the future will go to the people who know how to build what comes next.
The ALFRD Hackathon is a one-day build for a selected group of student developers, designers and finance-minded builders, working on real problems at the frontier of AI and finance. Bring your skills and a laptop. We'll bring the challenges, the mentors and the prizes.
Three tracks
Pick one track for your build. Whichever you choose, every team demos to the ALFRD team and is in the running for the overall prize.
ALFRD Track: Autonomous Finance Operations. Set by the team at ALFRD, an AI-native finance platform. Build the agents and workflows that run a finance function: reconciliations, invoice and PO matching, month-end close, reporting.
Markets & Trading Track. Set by a global trading and fintech partner. Build tools that help people understand, analyse and act on markets.
Payments & Money Movement Track. Build what moves money faster, cheaper and more safely, for businesses and consumers.
Prizes
🥇 ALFRD Track winner
Demo to the industry: present your build to CFOs, finance leaders and founders at ALFRD's finance-leaders event
Paid build bounty: if ALFRD chooses to adopt your build, you could earn up to £1,000 to take it to production (at ALFRD's discretion)
Your name in the product: credited in ALFRD, plus a LinkedIn recommendation from ALFRD's founder
ALFRD 100: a 1-of-1 exclusive ALFRD item for each team member
🏆 ALFRD Best Overall (open to every team, across all three tracks)
A 1:1 session with ALFRD's founder on taking your project further
Founding access to ALFRD's invite-only beta
🎯 Careers prize (open to every team)
Interview opportunities and career support from our hiring partner, helping top builders land roles in fintech and AI. Full details announced soon.
📈 Markets & Trading Track prizes
3 interview opportunities with our trading partner: a fintech with over three decades in global markets that has worked with Premier League clubs
💸 Payments & Money Movement Track prizes
Announced soon.
Every finalist team also gets their project in front of the founders, operators and investors on the judging panel.
Get job-ready for the future of finance
Build the skills employers are hiring for: designing AI-native finance workflows, agents and tools
Leave with a portfolio project you can show in fintech and FinOps interviews
Meet the people hiring: founders, operators and engineers from fintech and AI companies
Learn where finance is heading and how the job is changing, straight from people leading that shift
What to expect
Opening keynote and challenge reveal from ALFRD
ALFRD engineers mentoring across every track, on hand all day to help you ship
Speakers and judges including CEOs of VC-backed fintech startups, plus operators and investors building at the edge of AI and finance
Demos and judging by founders and investors
Food and drinks all day
Who it's for
Ambitious students from any discipline: software engineers, data scientists, designers, and accounting, finance and business students. No finance background needed if you can build, and no coding background needed if you understand finance. Apply solo or with a team of up to 4. We'll help you find teammates on the day.
Schedule
09:00 Doors open, breakfast, team formation
10:00 ALFRD opening keynote and challenge reveal
10:30 Hacking begins
13:00 Lunch
16:00 Hacking ends, submissions due
16:15 Demos and judging
17:30 Winners announced
18:00 Networking
19:00 Close
Hosts
ALFRD (host): alfrdhq.com
The Hack Collective (community partner): hackcollective.uk
Partners
University of Westminster: venue and hospitality partner
More partners and sponsors announced soon. Interested in sponsoring a track, prizes or catering? Get in touch with the ALFRD team.