UAE tech firm Bloovo launches Bkathon, a virtual hackathon platform
Bloovo, an innovative technology company founded in Dubai and specializing in the provision of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered talent acquisition solutions, has announced the launch of Bkathon, its cloud-based SaaS-oriented virtual hackathon platform, designed to digitize the hackathon process. The cloud-based platform allows companies to host and run their own virtual hackathons without the hassle of organizing them themselves and is intended to become one of the brand’s main products. By harnessing the minds of the brightest young talent from around the world, business leaders can solve daunting issues and challenges and encourage a culture of innovation within their organizations. In recent years, hackathons have grown in popularity as a modern tool by which leaders can take their company to the next level, based around the belief in collaborative innovation and the power of harvesting ideas from a number of sources. Hackathons are dynamic in their open process, encouraging participants to think outside the box, experiment and rapidly prototype to give leaders the edge.
Hackathons are not just limited to tech companies and over the past years many other sectors have started to use it.
According to recent data from hackathon.com, the largest online hackathon community worldwide, only 27 percent of tech companies are using hackathons today as opposed to 73 percent of the companies being non-tech divided, highlighted by manufacturing and transportation companies at 12 and 11 percent, respectively, followed by health care and telecom. The study has also showcased that there has been a 37 percent rise in internal hackathons over the past two years with the main adopters of internal hackathons being financial services at 18 percent, manufacturing at 17 percent and retail industries at 16 percent.
Dr. Ahmad Khamis, co-founder and CEO of Bloovo, said: “The market is rich with opportunities and we are seeing the development of a more diverse ecosystem between companies and talent, furthering the innovation culture and fostering deep creative thinking.”