Pinch Payments Opens a $50K National Hackathon for Payments Builders

By Paul Allen

Pinch Payments has launched a national hackathon called 'Pinch Me, I Want $50K', with a top cash prize of AUD $50,000 for Australia's next payments innovation. Run in partnership with The Founders…

Pinch Payments has launched a national hackathon called 'Pinch Me, I Want $50K', with a top cash prize of AUD $50,000 for Australia's next payments innovation. Run in partnership with The Founders Union, the competition invites builders to put together something tangible in a short window, with applications closing 22 July 2026 and a demo and pitch night set for 10 August 2026.

For Paul Allen, Co-Founder and CEO of Pinch Payments, the format plays directly to what makes payments an unusual area of software to work in. Paul said payments is one of the few parts of a tech stack where a small team can genuinely ship something meaningful in a week, because the hard infrastructure problems are already solved. It is a view that frames the hackathon less as a test of endurance and more as an invitation to build on top of foundations that already exist.

That perspective is grounded in the business Paul co-founded with Ben Cull in 2017. Pinch Payments, headquartered in Brisbane, helps companies collect invoice payments through direct debit, credit cards and payment plans, with integrations into accounting platforms including Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB. The company also operates a platform called Glassbox, which lets software providers embed payment processing directly into their own products. By mid-2026, Pinch processes collections for thousands of Australian businesses.

The hackathon arrives at a notable point in the company's growth. In April 2025, Pinch Payments was acquired by Fiserv, and Paul now serves as a Director of Pinch Payments, a Fiserv company. The partnership with The Founders Union continues a theme Paul has spoken to elsewhere. He has described Pinch as bringing expertise around payments and scalable revenue infrastructure so founders can spend less time managing payments and more time building, and has called The Founders Union a meaningful step toward a more inclusive, founder-first ecosystem.

With a $50,000 prize and a tight build window, 'Pinch Me, I Want $50K' turns that idea into a concrete opportunity. Paul's bet is a simple one. Give capable teams access to solved payments infrastructure and a week to work with it, and meaningful products can emerge.