Hack the Normal - From Africa for Africa

We should consider social progress, economic development, climate conditions, and the environment in all the steps we take in order to leave a more liveable world to future generations. This level of social awareness is essential for living sustainably; but, we must also ensure that we have the tools necessary to organise our lives around sustainability.

Defy, which offers technological and organisational structures that will enable innovative ideas to come to life as well as the projects it carries out to realise its digital transformation vision, organised the Hack the Normal from Africa for Africa Hackathon on 3-5 March 2021 in cooperation with ATÖLYE.

Hack the Normal from Africa for Africa supported the participants in developing new products, services, and business models with commercialisation potential under the headlines of "Healthy Living, Sustainable Living, and Financial Technologies".

110 partners and 294 mentors supported the idea marathon, in which +1000 applications were received from 51 different countries and 247 entrepreneurs participated, and one of the largest digital hackathons of the African continent was achieved.

Expertise and Technology Focus Areas

Financial Solutions

Sustainable Living

Heathy Living

  • Receiving Individual and Team Applications

    Creation of an online form containing the contact details of the participants, their current occupation, and their anticipated roles during the hackathon.

  • Selection of Participants

    Participants register via an online form that includes their contact information, open-source username, preferred programming languages, and resource-related interests. Participants are selected according to the hackathon areas.

  • Creation of Teams

    Participants choose teams according to their interests, following the rule that they must be from different fields of expertise.

  • Hackathon

    The teams will receive training in different areas such as problem discovery, research, solution development, prototyping, storytelling, and attend seminars where experts in their fields will take part as speakers. During the hackathon, participants get the chance to develop their projects and refine their ideas by receiving mentorship from experts from different disciplines and fields.

  • Post-Hackathon

"How Can We Support?"

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Process Monitoring

Participation in acceleration and incubation programs, access to users, and ecosystem.

Mentorship

We offer participants the opportunity to receive mentoring support from experts in their fields.

Product Development

We provide the opportunity to receive training and attend seminars in different fields such as research, prototyping, and storytelling.

Promotion and Business Model

We provide "business model" support for the intellectual property rights of the teams, as well as promotion and sales opportunities to reach customers through communication channels.

Partners

Hack the Normal

By focusing on the "new normal" phenomenon, Hack the Normal supported participants in developing new products, services, and business models with commercialization potential under the headings of "Healthy Living, Sustainable Living, and Social Life."

Frequenty Asked Questions

Answers to all questions about the programs are here!

No, Hack the Normal is expecting applications from all around the world!

Projects can be submitted to the hackathon at any stage (idea, prototype, ready-made product, product pivot, etc.).

Applications will be evaluated criteria based on their impact, applicability, and commercialization.

Individuals are eligible to apply to the hackathon, but they are expected to join a team or form their own teams before the event. There will be time allocated for team formation just before the start of the hackathon

During the team formation phase (see the previous answer), teams who need more members can invite individual participants to their teams

Teams can be between 3-7 people.