Mastercard Challenge

About the Program

The challenge, “Financial Inclusion for the SDGs: Solving for the Future,” organized by Spring in collaboration with leading fintech partners in Bahrain, invites university students to create innovative, data-driven solutions that enhance financial inclusion and address global challenges aligned with the UN’s SDGs. Winning teams receive mentorship, training, and a chance to present their solutions at Bahrain Fintech Forward.

Overview

The program started with a 3-week bootcamp featuring 11 fintech-driven solutions. The first phase focused on idea validation and impact assessment, ensuring each solution aligned with real-world needs and the SDGs. In the second phase, participants worked on transforming their ideas into scalable and viable solutions, preparing them to be developed as startups.

Next was the prototyping phase, where teams released prototypes and gathered customer feedback to refine their solutions.

The program ended with a preliminary selection of 5 participants, who were chosen to pitch their revamped solutions at Fintech Forward. They identified bottlenecks and pivoted where needed to improve their ideas.