U.S. Bank and Visa co-hosted the “Hack Big for Small Business” hackathon over the weekend, with the winner emerging as Big Data 4 Small Business.
In tandem with the event, Visa said more than 120 developers traveled to Atlanta to compete in the hackathon, which offered up $18,000 in prizes. Visa said in a release that the focus was on helping small business owners manage inventory procurement and management, eyeing quantity and cost, among other factors.
The team at Big Data 4 Small Business developed a solution that Visa said offers merchant-defined, enrichment-promoting analytics tailored to retailers. Those analytics also take into account local and industry comparisons.
The companies said via a blog post ahead of the competition that entrants would use U.S. Bank, Elavon and Visa APIs, along with other third-party APIs, to build their solutions.
In a statement announcing the results of the competition, Paul Walsh, senior vice president of Platform Strategy & Innovation at Visa, said the partnership with U.S. Bank was “able to help startups, like Big Data 4 Small Business, quickly turn around a viable solution for small businesses by giving them access to Visa products and services via APIs and expert support. The quality of solutions the teams presented this weekend showcases the endless possibilities co-collaboration and an open API ecosystem can do to help reshape the future of commerce.”
