Hyundai Will Support the
Winning Projects of the Hack
the Crisis Hackathon with the
Amount of 10 Million Czech
Crowns

Hyundai has become the new partner of the hack the crisis Czech Republic Hackathon, which was announced by the Czechinvest agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade at the beginning of April. The Czech branch of the South Korean carmaker has provided a donation of 10 million Czech crowns, which will be used to award the best eight projects that register for the hackathon in the period from 1 April to 31 May 2020.

Prague, 15 May 2020:
Hyundai, through the Nošovice manufacturer Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech and the Czech representation of the Hyundai Motor Czech brand, decided to provide the Hack the Crisis Czech Republic hackathon with a donation of ten million Czech crowns in order to support the Czech Republic in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to the new partner, the best hackathon projects can win prizes of up to three million Czech crowns. “We have decided to support the Czech Republic in this difficult situation and we very much welcome the idea that the amount will be used for the best projects that address this situation and its consequences. We will also be present at the selection of the best projects, so we will see live and be able to influence what the funds we provide will be used for,” says Petr Michník, Head of the Legal and External Relations Department at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech. “We have a number of great projects registered in the hackathon, so we very much appreciate the opportunity to acknowledge them in this way. This will be the highest amount that will be awarded in this type of competition,” says Patrik Reichl, CEO of CzechInvest.

“The Hack the Crisis Hackathon is one of the main activities through which we have been trying to promote technology and good ideas to fight the crisis practically from the very beginning. Thanks to the donation from Hyundai, we can now support the best projects that are created within the hackathon,” says Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček and adds: “The financial allocation of the Czech Rise Up Programme, for which the participants of the hackathon have also registered, is almost exhausted, therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will have to stop the receipt of applications. That is why we are glad that the private sector has joined the evaluation of projects from public funds on its own initiative.”

Hack the Crisis Hackathon participants who registered before the announcement of this special prize are automatically entered into the competition, which means that their projects do not require any further registration, but they can still complete their applications. After the end of receipt of the applications, the competing proposals will be evaluated and then the hackathon expert board will select fifteen best projects whose representatives will present their projects to the expert board consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the CzechInvest agency and three representatives of hackathon partners on a set date. The final winner will then be selected by the board live and it will also evaluate how the presenter presents his or her product and how they plan to deal with the prospective prize.

Hack the Crisis Connects the State and Private Partners

Hack the Crisis is a virtual hackathon that was launched to coordinate the needs of the state with energy and volunteering in the IT community and business environment and thus support the implementation of relevant projects that can help in the current situation or mitigate its impact. The main organisers are CzechInvest and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. So far, more than fifty partners from the private and public sectors have joined it, providing their services and products to selected projects. Free mentoring is then provided by more than 130 experts from various fields.

The presentation of the best projects will take place on-line and will be open to the public. “We are preparing streaming of all the best projects in which the winners will be announced. The first place will receive the highest amount of three million Czech crowns, the second place two million Czech crowns, the third place one million Czech crowns. The board will select five projects for the fourth place and will award each of them the amount of 700 thousand Czech crowns,” calculates Reichl the amount of contributions the winners can look forward to.

The prize is intended primarily for the development of the winning project and can be used, for example, to cover labour costs, purchase of hardware, software, certification, licenses, rentals, legal services, intellectual property protection, promotion, mentoring and other similar costs related to the project development.

You Can Still Register Your Project

The hackathon was officially launched on 6 April 2020, and 140 projects are currently registered. Among them are ideas from many different areas, most often from healthcare and IT. “However, this does not end the receipt of applications. More promising projects can still register. There are almost 14 days left until the end of May, so I would like to invite everyone who is hesitant to register their projects not to wait for anything and register in time on the hackathon website www.hackthecrisis.cz,” concludes Tereza Kubicová, organiser of the hackathon for CzechInvest.

About CzechInvest
The CzechInvest agency plays a key role in supporting business and investment in its comprehensive form. The unique combination of regional, central and international operations ensures the integrity of services and the ability to connect global trends with regional conditions in the Czech Republic. One of the main goals of CzechInvest is to transform the Czech Republic into an innovation leader in Europe. CzechInvest is a state-funded organisation subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1992.

About Hyundai
The high-capacity Nošovice car plant Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech (HMMC) with technically advanced equipment is the first Hyundai manufacturing plant in Europe. It started production in November 2008 and employs 3,300 people. It produces 1,500 cars a day, i.e. more than 300,000 cars a year, and last year the plant celebrated the production of its three millionth car. Last year, HMMC cars were distributed to more than 70 countries on 5 continents. In March this year, the production of the Kona Electric model, the first new-generation electric car manufactured in the Czech Republic, was launched. Kona Electric has joined five other models currently in production: the i30 Hatchback, i30 Fastback, i30 kombi, i30 N and Tucson.