The winning teams from each of the 12 regional events will take on a new challenge and battle each other for the title of Masters of Code.

For the past ten months, the Masters of Code competition traversed the globe – from Singapore to New York to Tel Aviv – hosting regional weekend-long events that tasked the world’s top coders, developers, designers and entrepreneurs to create new consumer payments solutions featuring MasterCard APIs.

In the earlier rounds, winning solutions ranged from a price protection assistant tied to doing social good, to a parent-monitored credit card for kids, and even a coding game to encourage women to join the tech industry.

During the San Francisco finale, the MasterCard Masters of Code Champion will receive $100,000 and dedicated resources to develop and commercialize their innovation, including:

• One week at the next MasterCard Start Path™ boot camp in Singapore
• Six months of mentoring from a member of the MasterCard Open API executive team
• Free payment processing for up to $250,000 in transactions for the first 12 months using Simplify Commerce

While in California, all winning regional teams will also enjoy a MasterCard Priceless® Experience in Napa Valley and Silicon Valley.

The San Francisco event will open with a welcome from entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, Eric Ries. He pioneered the Lean Startup movement, a new-business strategy which maximizes a company’s potential by allocating and improvising their resources as efficiently as possible.

At the end of the two-day hackathon, the winning team will be evaluated on their innovation’s impact, design, creativity, simplicity and usage of MasterCard APIs. The esteemed judging panel will include:

• Michael Abbott, general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers
• Debbie Barta, global platform lead of Simplify Commerce at MasterCard
• Dave Birch, director of Consult Hyperion
• Kimberly Bryant, Pahara-Aspen Institute fellow
• Jean-Louis Gassee, general partner at Allegis Capital
• Ben Parr, author of Captivology, partner at DominateFund
• Karen Pascoe, senior vice president, User Experience at MasterCard
• Marc Verstaen, entrepreneur in residence at Trinity Ventures
• Karen Webster, chief executive officer at Market Platform Dynamics and PYMNTS.com

“We approached this series looking for the best developers and that is exactly who we have found,” said Sebastien Taveau, chief developer evangelist, MasterCard Open API. “At MasterCard, we opened our APIs to see what they are inspired to create next and promote financial inclusion globally.”

The global finalists include:

• Sydney, Cointr: a digital piggybank that allows consumers to save by automatically “depositing” their coin change
• Hong Kong, Master Your Card: a parent-supervised children’s credit card designed to help develop responsible money management
• Singapore, One Small Step: coding-centric games to help Southeast Asian women with a better understanding of the technology around them
• São Paulo, Bolsa Capital: an online “exchange market” to buy and sell MasterCard merchants receivables
• Tel Aviv, weBUSKING: an online talent show forum that allows viewers to pay the street performer directly
• Mexico City, Knowhere: a system to rent out parking spaces in people’s driveways while they are at work
• San Francisco, Dave: recuperates previously unavailable personal price protection refunds to enable charitable donations
• Montreal, FareShare: a simplified expense-sharing solution based on purchase history API
• Istanbul, Mobil Bayi: a solution to load money and game credits on any NFC-based card
• St. Louis, FanFare: a one-stop resource to match event and nightlife recommendations based on a consumer’s favorite teams and musicians
• New York, Pay Butler: a voice-controlled service to help the disabled or illiterate manage everyday bills and payments
• London, All of Us: a solution to make it easier to share transit-related expenses