MasterCard Expands Its Outreach to Software Developers With a Global ‘Hackathon’

MasterCard Inc. opened up its payment network to third-party software developers in 2012 and since then has participated in a number of regional “hackathons” in which developers create applications that link to MasterCard network services. Now MasterCard is expanding its footprint in the developer space by sponsoring what it calls its first MasterCard Masters of Code competition that will bring developers from around the world to Silicon Valley in December 2015.

The grand prize will be $100,000 in seed money to be awarded to the winning developer or team. Other prizes include two weeks at the MasterCard Start Path development center in Dublin, Ireland, for promising startup businesses; six months of mentoring from software experts; and a year’s free payment processing on up to $250,000 in transactions through MasterCard’s Simplify Commerce application programming interface (API).

“The primary goal is to get the technology in front of as many people as possible,” Sebastian Taveau, chief developer evangelist at MasterCard, tells Digital Transactions News. “When you are opening your platform, the goal at the end of the day is to reach out to segments of the industry you’re not engaged with. We want to engage with startups, we want to engage with entrepreneurs.” He also says that it’s important for MasterCard, throughout all of the regions in which it operates, to create relationships with those “who we think can create the next big thing.”

MasterCard will supply the APIs upon which developers can create all manner of programs for retailers, restaurants, e-commerce sites, financial firms, and other businesses. “Payments is just one part of it,” says Taveau, who joined MasterCard in July after stints at biometrics developer Validity Sensors Inc., now a part of Synaptics Inc., and before that PayPal Inc.

An example of a third-party application linked to MasterCard and currently in the market is the navigation system in a European automaker’s cars that includes an ATM locater. (MasterCard says it isn’t authorized to disclose the manufacturer’s identity.) Another API makes North Carolina State University's student ID card a U.S. Bank-issued prepaid MasterCard with reload functions. “Sometimes you can see technology that comes from left field,” Taveau says.

MasterCard is looking for 100 to 200 developers in each of the 10 hackathon cities in nine countries. The competition, organized by a firm called AngelHack, starts Feb. 7 in Sydney, Australia, and will be followed by events in Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. About 50 developers are expected to participate in next year’s finals.