Columbus, OH - Entrepreneurial minds and focused investments are at the core of Nationwide’s approach to innovation. The company continually delivers next-generation experiences for its customers by exploring leading-edge topics from analytics and automation technology to new insurance and financial services platforms.

Now, Nationwide will tap Silicon Valley tech innovators who have a broad range of experience to help accelerate the digitization of the company’s core and adjacent businesses. Through its partnership with AngelHack, a leading organizer of technology-focused collaboration events, Nationwide will host a hackathon to drive solutions to benefit its insurance and financial services customers.

“We are bringing together the best developers, entrepreneurs and designers to help create solutions to some of the industry’s most pressing and complex challenges,” said Seth Flory, Nationwide’s vice president of Technology Innovation & Strategy. “In addition to the innovation work we do here in Columbus, we want diverse opinions and ideas from people from different areas, perspectives and walks of life.”

The hackathon is part of a broader strategy that includes key investments in technology to further establish the company’s role as a leader in digital innovation, said Erik Ross, associate vice president of Nationwide Ventures, which invests in startups, pilots new technologies and tests new solutions and business models.

“Events like the Nationwide Hackathon and other key partnerships with entrepreneurial collaborators such as Plug and Play, establish the company’s role as a leader in digital innovation,” Ross said. “The insurance and financial services industry is shifting due to rapidly evolving consumer demands that encourage and inspire us to find ways to better serve the needs of our members.”

Nationwide Hackathon 

The Nationwide Hackathon will be held May 19-20 at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, Calif. Teams of developers, entrepreneurs and designers will collaborate for the development of creative solutions to critical challenges facing Nationwide’s customers. The challenges will focus on:

• Connected BusinessesCreate a solution that integrates IoT and the corresponding data that can inform small or medium business owners on how to improve and create more efficient businesses.

• Buying Your First HomeCreate a product that will help millennials prepare for buying their first home.

• A Community On Your Side® Build a solution that brings Nationwide members in the same community together during a catastrophe. (e.g. assist those who are unaware of what to do in a catastrophe situation)

Nationwide hopes that a grand prize of $10,000 and the opportunity to present winning ideas to Nationwide’s executive team will help to bring out the best ideas from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.