What happens when cutting-edge AI meets personal finance? That was the mission behind Raptors.dev's "FinWell Hackathon 2025." This global online event brought together developers, designers, and fintech enthusiasts to create revolutionary AI-powered financial wellness tools, focusing on making complex financial concepts accessible and engaging for users of all backgrounds.
✯ Best: Innovation <> Impact
- 1st Place — FinTech Innovators (Team: YouNance). A polished and engaging personal finance platform featuring strong gamification, comprehensive AI guidance, and robust habit formation tools. This innovative solution combines broad feature sets with well-integrated AI to create personalized financial journeys that educate and empower users. "A polished and engaging personal finance platform with strong gamification, a broad feature set, and well-integrated AI guidance; excellent for habit formation and user engagement, though deeper backend sophistication and unique AI-driven analytical methods could further distinguish it in the fintech space." — Rajesh Sura, Judge
- 2nd Place — Mallik Jee (Team: Saving Pilot). A highly polished, inclusive, and locally optimized financial management platform emphasizing strong accessibility, gamification, and educational value. The solution demonstrates exceptional technical execution and AI integration while maintaining focus on real-world user adoption. "A highly polished, inclusive, and locally optimized financial management platform with strong accessibility, gamification, and educational value; well-executed technical stack and AI integration make it stand out, though showcasing real-world performance metrics and user adoption data could further validate its impact." — Rajesh Sura, Judge
- 3rd Place — Segmentation Fault (Team: Financeer). A feature-rich personal finance platform with cohesive dark-themed UI, smooth onboarding, and strong AI integration for contextual assistance, stock suggestions, and OCR-based transaction capture. The solution balances utility and education with potential for enhanced backend scalability. "A feature-rich personal finance platform with a cohesive dark-themed UI, smooth onboarding, and strong AI integration for contextual assistance, stock suggestions, and OCR-based transaction capture; balanced blend of utility and education, with potential to stand out further by enhancing backend scalability and demonstrating real-world data performance." — Rajesh Sura, Judge
✯ Category Winners
- Best Technical Execution: FinTech Innovators — "A polished and engaging personal finance platform with strong gamification, a broad feature set, and well-integrated AI guidance; excellent for habit formation and user engagement, though deeper backend sophistication and unique AI-driven analytical methods could further distinguish it in the fintech space." — Rajesh Sura
- Best User Experience & Accessibility: Mallik Jee — "A highly polished, inclusive, and locally optimized financial management platform with strong accessibility, gamification, and educational value; well-executed technical stack and AI integration make it stand out, though showcasing real-world performance metrics and user adoption data could further validate its impact." — Rajesh Sura
✯ Our Esteemed Panel of Judges
- Denys Syntiuk — CEO & Co-founder at Diny.ai and Cognitivision with extensive experience building AI agents to automate and scale business operations. Denis is a Senior Member of IEEE, IAENG, and Hackathon Raptors Fellow, previously creating award-winning AI solutions for renewable energy. His expertise spans AI-driven analytics, business automation, and scalable SaaS solutions, having won multiple innovation awards including the CONNECT Poland Prize.
- Tharun Sure — Senior Software Engineer at ServiceNow with over 11 years of experience in AI, ML, and enterprise software solutions. Tharun specializes in designing scalable systems and AI-powered solutions, with previous experience at Dexcom, Ford Motor Company, and Verizon. As a Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified ScrumMaster, he brings deep expertise in agile methodologies and technical project leadership to hackathon evaluation.
✯ Key Takeaways
- AI-Powered Financial Tools Are Democratizing Finance — Participants demonstrated that AI isn't just processing transactions—it's fundamentally transforming how people understand and manage their financial wellness, making sophisticated financial guidance accessible to users regardless of their financial literacy level.
- User Experience Drives Adoption — The winning projects proved that exceptional UX design and accessibility are crucial for financial tools. Teams showed that AI-powered platforms can deliver professional-grade functionality while maintaining intuitive interfaces that encourage daily engagement.
- Gamification Enhances Financial Behavior — Multiple winning solutions incorporated gamification elements, demonstrating that making financial management engaging and rewarding can significantly improve user habits and long-term financial outcomes.
- Integration and Personalization Lead Innovation — The most successful projects combined multiple AI capabilities—from natural language processing to predictive analytics—creating personalized experiences that adapt to individual financial situations and goals.
While traditional finance apps tell you what you spent, these teams built something smarter—AI companions that understand why you spent it, and gently guide you toward better choices without the shame or complexity.
