Hedera Africa Hackathon Names Winners in Record Event

Organizers — the Hashgraph Association and Exponential Science, with Dar Blockchain operating the program — announced winners after a yearlong 2025 hackathon that drew more than 13,000 developers, 1,300 project submissions and 45,000 certification participants across more than 20 African hubs. The event distributed a $1 million prize pool to projects built on Hedera’s distributed ledger technology.

Teams worked across four thematic tracks: On-Chain Finance & Real-World Assets; Distributed Ledger Technology for Operations; Immersive Experiences; and AI & DePIN. Projects presented infrastructure-focused solutions, including cross-rail payment routing between incompatible systems, verified renewable energy certificates and tamper-resistant medical records.

The cross-track championship awards recognized the top projects overall. First place and $100,000 went to GreenAfrica of Nigeria, an environmental verification platform. Second place and $70,000 went to Carboni Renewable Energy Certificate Platform of Egypt. Third place and $60,000 went to Effisend X Africa of Mexico, a payments-routing layer. Fourth place and $40,000 went to Silsilat Finance of Malaysia. Fifth place and $30,000 went to Beyond Service of Nigeria.

Track winners included Silsilat Finance (Malaysia), Direla (South Africa), Upesa (Nigeria), Tedera (Romania) and Nia (Madagascar) in On-Chain Finance & Real-World Assets; in DLT for Operations the winners were Carboni (Egypt), Building a Chain of Trust in the Green Power-to-X Market (USA), RDZ Health (Zimbabwe), Afiya (Nigeria) and W.A.T.A (Brazil); Immersive Experiences awards went to Beyond Service Game (Nigeria), Cryptonia CITY (Nigeria), KeyRing (USA) and CryptoMage (India); and the AI & DePIN track honored Effisend X Africa (Mexico), GreenAfrica (Nigeria), Hedron (Morocco) and APIx: Intelligent Web3 Deployment Layer (Ivory Coast).

The Carboni team wrote that judges had endorsed their vision for rebuilding renewable energy reporting and financing and that they plan to turn the project into an operating service on Hedera to support the 1.5-degree goal. Kamal Youssefi, president of the Hashgraph Association, called the event ‘historic’ and said Hedera intends to sustain support for developers after the competition ends. Dr. Paolo Tasca, chairman at Exponential Science, noted that the program moved participants from education to the development of infrastructure at scale.

The Hashgraph Association also formed an Investment Committee to make multi-million-dollar commitments to strategic partnerships and to expand the ecosystem’s presence in emerging markets. Organizers said the committee will provide capital, mentorship and enterprise pathways for builders and offer follow-on support for promising projects from the hackathon.

Partners on the Hedera Africa Hackathon included Orange Digital Centers, Sygnum Bank, the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Shamba Records, Hashgraph Online and Swisscoast, with support from Taylor Wessing, Rearden Digital Assets and Object Computing, Inc. Organizers said the hackathon will return in 2026, with details on location, tracks and partners to be released later.