The daily life of the Filipino entrepreneurs is a relentless balancing act of managing finances while pursuing a livelihood, often defined by significant logistical and financial challenges.
These daily pressures are even heavier for emerging entrepreneurs building a business from the ground up. While GCash has unlocked vast possibilities for financial inclusion, the goal must now shift from helping everyday entrepreneurs survive to helping them thrive faster and better.
How can GCash become the complete financial backbone that empowers Filipino entrepreneurs to run smarter, grow faster, and build a business that lasts?
1. Identify real financial and operational challenges of Filipino entrepreneurs that GCash can help solve.
2. Develop holistic innovation strategies and solutions that leverage GCash’s ecosystem across payments, credit, insurance, merchant tools, analytics, and other financial services to help negosyantes manage their businesses more efficiently, access opportunities for growth, strengthen financial resilience, and participate more fully in the digital economy.
The ImaGnation: GCash Innovation Challenge is a 3-day hackathon-case competition designed for young trailblazers to turn their imagination into innovation and make our dream of Finance for All a reality.
A group of 5 undergraduate students, currently in their 3rd-5th year of undergraduate studies.
Participating students must agree to the terms and conditions of the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) upon registration.
More details on the team requirements and initial pitch submissions will be communicated to each team within 1-3 days after registration.
Members of the same group are allowed to be enrolled in different colleges/universities, as long as they are currently be in their 3rd, 4th, OR 5th year of undergraduate studies. You may be in different years of undergraduate studies as long as you are all 3rd-5th years.
No. The platform focuses on visual logic and design, enabling participants from various disciplines—not just those with technical backgrounds—to create functional prototypes.
There is no participation/joining fee to join the ImaGnation. Registration is free.
You can register your team via: http://bit.ly/ImaGnationRegistration2026.
No, you are not required to be endorsed or recommended by your colleges/universities.
Registration deadline is on August 21, 2026 (Friday).
Please refer to the following important dates to remember in order to participate in the competition proper:
Sept 7: Kick-Off & Bootcamp Day
Sept 8: Hackathon Proper
Sept 9: Challenge Finals
All event days will be held onsite and the Top 10 Teams will be required to attend.
The venue for all onsite events will be at the GCash Office, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila.
No. For the initial phase, teams are not required to build a prototype yet. You only need to submit your business case or proposed solution that clearly explains your idea, its impact, and how it could work in real life.
Prototype development begins during the Hackathon Proper, where qualified teams will be onboarded to GCash’s internal platform during Bootcamp Day to begin building their prototypes.
Teams will use GCash’s internal innovation platform, which supports visual or “vibe” coding. This allows participants to design and build prototypes without advanced coding or backend development.
Yes. A guided onboarding session will be conducted during Bootcamp Day to familiarize all teams with the platform’s features and help them begin their prototype development.
Support for travel and accommodation will be provided for shortlisted teams in the Top 10 and Top 5 based outside the Greater Manila Area in order for them to join the onsite events.
The top 3 teams will win exciting cash prizes, gadgets, & guaranteed internship placement in our internship program.
