Part 3: The winners & takeaways from hatch

All in all, hatch was a resounding success. By maintaining a selective application process and ensuring that all teams received ample mentor support, almost 100% of participants from Saturday returned bright and early on Sunday to present 13 impressive pitches. Ranging from applying blockchain technologies to streamline the work of farmers in developing countries, to an app that aims to help consumers with food allergies, the judges made the incredibly difficult decision of picking the top 3 winning teams, taking into account the social impact and creativity of the proposed solution, as well as the quality of the code, the pitch and the business model.

The first prize, consisting of a fast track to the final round of interviews for a position at Vodafone and $5,000 credit with Stripe to contribute to processing fees, went to the Farmchain team, an app using blockchain to provide farmers with a reliable way to track the location and medical history of their livestock in order to optimise the farming industry in developing countries. Auntee, a chatbot which operates via text that guides a pregnant woman in developing countries through the stages of pregnancy, generating tailored recommendations to factors such as the woman’s age to prescribe basic medication and monitor progress for signs of pregnancy-related illnesses, came a close second, going home with a gamer kit by Technology Will Save Us to build their own handheld games console.

The third prize went to Intergrate, who went home with a microbit by Technology Will Save Us, for creating an app prototype that responds to the refugee crisis through guiding refugees through the confusing process and paperwork of settling into the host country - from when they arrive in the country, to when they work in their first job. All winners also went home with an Amazon Echo Dot, kindly sponsored by Starling Bank, and all participants were given a swag bag (including power banks, water bottles and notebooks) and a discount code for Superhi’s digital Learn To Code Now book.

Special thanks to the SheCanCode team and UCL Entrepreneurs as co-partners, Aga Gajownik at I&I (Innovation & Integration), our lovely sponsors, mentors, volunteers, and of course the participants - without whom hatch London would not have been possible.