Crunchfish in collaboration with IDFC FIRST Bank runner-up in Reserve Bank of India’s hackathon for CBDC-Retail offline payment solution
Crunchfish in collaboration with IDFC FIRST Bank were announced runner-up for its Digital Cash telecom solution, in Reserve Bank of India’s second global hackathon HaRBInger 2023 on the theme “Inclusive Digital Services”. Crunchfish solution, under the problem statement “New use cases for CBDC-Retail including offline transactions”, allows the user to scan & pay by initiating payments, without internet connectivity, with an SMS to the payment service. The solution was showcased at the HaRBIinger Grand Finale by representatives of IDFC FIRST Bank that demonstrated their ready implementation for the Indian Digital Rupee.
Photo: Sunil Karkera, Senior Product Manager, Payments and Fintech Partnership at IDFC FIRST Bank. Nayan Mehta Product Manager, Payments and Fintech Partnership at IDFC FIRST Bank. Gagan Kochar, Head of Business Development India at Crunchfish.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) organized its second global hackathon – “HARBINGER 2023 – Inclusive Digital Services” with four problem statements to shape the future of the payment systems in India.
- Digital banking services for differently abled
- Improving scalability of blockchains
- Innovative RegTech solutions for Regulated Entities
- New use-cases for CBDC-Retail including offline transactions
Crunchfish was invited as one of 28 finalists to present and demonstrate their submitted solutions for an expert jury at the Grand Finale in Bengaluru on October 10th-11th. Based on the submitted innovation and the presentation, Crunchfish was announced runner-up for the problem statement “New use cases for CBDC-Retail including offline transactions” and awarded a cash prize of INR 2,000,000.
Crunchfish Digital Cash telecom enables scan & pay as well as pay to contacts, even without internet connectivity. By utilizing the ubiquitous 2G & 3G telecom networks in rural areas and congested hotspots it provides financial inclusion and payment resilience in India. This offline solution is very secure as the transaction is processed in the backend on the general ledger. Crunchfish Digital Cash telecom solution is ready for roll-out and already integrated in IDFC First Bank’s Digital Rupee app.
“We are very honored and happy to receive this award from the Reserve Bank of India for Digital Cash telecom. Digital Cash telecom is a great step towards financial inclusion and resilience as it allows users to pay to anyone, anywhere and anytime in India. The solution is ready to be implemented by any bank for the Digital Rupee and I would like to thank IDFC First Bank, who is the first bank to implement the solution, for their valuable support.", says Joachim Samuelsson, Crunchfish’s CEO.
For more information, please contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com
This information was provided by the contact person above for publication on 12th October 2023 at 08:30 CET.
Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.
About Crunchfish – crunchfish.com
Crunchfish is a deep tech company developing a Digital Cash platform for Banks, Payment Services and CBDC implementations and Gesture Interaction technology for AR/VR and automotive industry. Crunchfish is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market since 2016, with headquarters in Malmö, Sweden and with a subsidiary in India.
