eBay and PayPal Developers Help Nonprofits Solve Tech Problems

eBay Inc.’s ‘Opportunity Hack,’ which was organized in Chennai and Bangalore in support of nonprofits to create solutions for their technology problems, saw participation from more than 35 NGOs and 300 developers from across the two cities. The 36-hour, open-format events were recently held at PayPal’s Development Center in Chennai and eBay Inc.’s Development Center in Bangalore.

This unique volunteer-driven concept brought together software developers and domain experts in the field of social media, mobile and data technology, who developed solutions for the nonprofits’ problems that included writing web-based programs or building internal applications for day-to-day use.

The solutions pitched at the two events were judged by tech experts from eBay & PayPal and seasoned social entrepreneurs. Chennai Data Portal, a nonprofit based in Chennai, won the hackathon for their solution to improve the education system. The tool the team developed for them enables the Corporation of Chennai to better manage its schools and improve the quality of educationby monitoring the quality of infrastructure, staffing, resource alignment and performance management. Team Everest was chosen as the runner-up from Chennai for their ‘E-Receipt and Donation Management’ tool that addresses the simple-yet-widely-prevailing problem of issuing manual receipts. In Bangalore, Need Base India Foundation won the challenge for building the ‘Find the missing child’ app while Diya came second for developing an ‘e-Catalog Management system.’

Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, PayPal Technology – APAC, said, “It is truly inspiring to see technologists and nonprofits coming together to apply technology to simplify things.Their hard work and innovative solutions through the hackathon will better enable the organizations to add more value to thegreat workthey do in the community.”

“I am proud of what engineers from eBay Inc. and the industry did at Opportunity Hack. Their collaboration with the NGOs has created many technology-enabled solutions for this sector, giving us a deeper insight into these organizations and their needs. This is the first step to building bigger and better solutions for the future with social consciousness,” Ram Narayanan, General Manager, eBay Product Development Center, India, said.

Padmashree Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras, and Muki Regunathan, Founder & CEO, Pepper Square, were the keynote speakers at the Chennai and Bangalore editions of Opportunity Hack respectively.

About eBay Inc.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is a global commerce and payments leader, providing a robust platform where merchants of all sizes can compete and win. Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. connects millions of buyers and sellers and enabled $205 billion* of commerce volume in 2013. We do so through eBay, one of the world's largest online marketplaces, which allows users to buy and sell in nearly every country on earth; through PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive digital payments; and through eBay Enterprise, which enables omnichannel commerce, multichannel retailing and digital marketing for global enterprises in the U.S. and internationally. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, and eBay classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and its global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com. [* This adjusted number reflects decision to remove vehicles and real estate GMV from ongoing total GMV and ECV metrics (previously stated ECV for 2013 was $212 billion, incorporating vehicles and real estate GMV).]

About PayPal:

At PayPal, we put people at the center of everything we do. Founded in 1998, we continue to be at the forefront of the digital payments revolution, processing almost 10 million payments for our customers per day. PayPal gives people better ways to connect to their money and to each other, helping them send money without sharing financial information and with the flexibility to pay using their PayPal account balances, bank accounts, PayPal Credit and credit cards. With our 157 million active digital wallets, we have created an open and secure payments ecosystem people and businesses choose to securely transact with each other online, in stores and on mobile devices. PayPal is a truly global payments platform that is available to people in 203 markets, allowing customers to get paid in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 57 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 26 currencies. PayPal is an eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) company. In September 2014, eBay Inc. announced the planned separation of eBay and PayPal into independent publicly traded companies in 2015. More information about PayPal can be found at www.paypal.com and www.paypal-media.com. More information about the planned separation of eBay and PayPal can be found at update.ebayinc.com.

About PayPal India Development Centers:

PayPal’s base in India comprises software development centers in Chennai and Bangalore with over 2,000 engineers and knowledge professionals supporting both the eBay Marketplaces and PayPal businesses globally. The India centers are one of PayPal’s key software development centers in the world and are involved in the company’s technology and product development initiatives to improve its global payment platform. The India centers consist of development and quality engineers, solution managers, user-experience professionals, web developers, and project managers as well as site operations, data management, and risk analytics staff.

For further information: 

PayPal Public Relations:

Subhamoy Das

PayPal India

+91 7799000792

subhamoy.das@paypal.com

Media Relations:

Swetha Balakrishnan

Edelman, Chennai

+91 8939958127

swetha.balakrishnan@edelman.com