The Hedera Africa Hackathon crowned its winners after drawing more than 13,000 developers, 1,300 project submissions and 45,000 certification participants across more than 20 African hubs, a scale that its organisers said has made it the largest hackathon in the world.
Backed by The Hashgraph Association, a Swiss-based non-profit focused on digital enablement, innovation and education across the Hedera ecosystem and Exponential Science, which supports emerging technologies aimed at advancing human progress, the competition placed African builders at the centre of a fast-growing global contest for practical blockchain and distributed ledger solutions.
The $1 million prize pool, co-funded by The Hashgraph Association and Exponential Science, was spread across four thematic tracks and a cross-track championship recognising the strongest projects overall. Hedera said the winning teams built real infrastructure on top of Hedera Technology, with solutions ranging from route payments across incompatible networks and verified renewable energy certificates to secure medical records protected against silent or unauthorised alteration.
The event also marked a broader strategic step for the ecosystem. The Hashgraph Association formed an Investment Committee that will make multi-million-dollar commitments in strategic partnerships, a move intended to extend capital, mentorship and enterprise pathways beyond the hackathon itself and deepen Hedera’s footprint in emerging markets.
African teams featured prominently among the headline winners, underscoring the continent’s growing influence in digital infrastructure, clean energy verification, cross-border payments and applied Web3 tools.
The Cross-Track Champions were:
1st Place ($100,000): GreenAfrica (Nigeria) – Environmental verification platform enabling transparent tracking of sustainability initiatives
2nd Place ($70,000): Carboni Renewable Energy Certificate Platform (Egypt) – Infrastructure for proving and trading verified renewable energy credentials
3rd Place ($60,000): Effisend X Africa (Mexico) – AI-powered payment routing layer connecting incompatible African payment rails
4th Place ($40,000): Silsilat Finance (Malaysia) – Cross-border settlement infrastructure for emerging markets
5th Place ($30,000): Beyond Service (Nigeria) – Mobile game with persistent digital identity and asset ownership
Track Winners Highlight Africa’s Deep Tech Moment
The DLT for Operations track highlighted another strong African showing.
Winners included Carboni Renewable Energy Certificate Platform of Egypt, Building a Chain of Trust in the Green Power-to-X Market of the USA, RDZ Health of Zimbabwe, Afiya of Nigeria and W.A.T.A of Brazil. The presence of RDZ Health from Zimbabwe and Afiya from Nigeria points to the region’s expanding use of distributed ledger tools in health and operational systems, where trust, traceability and tamper resistance are becoming commercial necessities rather than technical luxuries.
In On-Chain Finance & Real-World Assets, the winners were Silsilat Finance of Malaysia, Direla of South Africa, Upesa of Nigeria, Tedera of Romania and Nia of Madagascar. The track reflects one of the most commercially sensitive areas in Web3, where startups are racing to connect tokenised assets, settlement rails and financial plumbing in markets still burdened by fragmentation and high transaction costs.
The Immersive Experiences category recognised Beyond Service Game of Nigeria, Cryptonia CITY of Nigeria, KeyRing of the USA and CryptoMage of India. The AI & DePIN track went to Effisend X Africa of Mexico, GreenAfrica of Nigeria, Hedron of Morocco and APIx: Intelligent Web3 Deployment Layer of Ivory Coast, reinforcing the geographic spread of innovation across Africa and beyond.
In a statement on the hackathon’s outcome, the team behind Carboni Renewable Energy Certificate Platform said, “We’re honored that the judges endorsed our vision for rebuilding renewable energy reporting and financing, and excited to turn this win into a real service on Hedera that supports the 1.5-degree goal.”
Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association, said the event had reached historic scale and reflected the depth of talent and ambition emerging from the continent and the wider developer community.
“He added that Hedera has a longstanding commitment to enabling global innovation and powering real utility, proven by the applications built this year spanning finance, sustainability, AI and DePIN verticals.”
He also said the new investment committee would continue backing developers after the competition ends, helping to “nurture these developers long after the hackathon ends, empowering the next generation of builders.”
Dr. Paolo Tasca, Chairman at Exponential Science, said the ecosystem’s strength begins with education and that the initiative had shown that pathway at scale, with participants moving from learning to building infrastructure with commercial relevance.
The hackathon’s partner network included Orange Digital Center and Dar Blockchain as operators, alongside Sygnum Bank, Orange Digital Centers, the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Shamba Records, Hashgraph Online and Swisscoast, with additional ecosystem and institutional partners including Taylor Wessing, Rearden Digital Assets and Object Computing, Inc.
Organisers said the hackathon will return in 2026, with the location, tracks and partners to be announced later. For Africa’s startups, the message from this year’s results was blunt. The continent is not merely joining the Web3 economy, it is helping define where its most useful applications will be built.
