MasterCard has been doing business in Canada for 40 years and today they’ve announced a partnership with MaRS Discovery District that will see a new outdoor patio space open up called ‘The MasterCard deck.’
In addition, a new 2-day challenge for developers, sponsored by Rogers and CIBC, has been unveiled. “MasterCard N>XT” is the the first payment network developer challenge in Canada and will take place September 28th and 29th in Toronto. This aims to find Canada’s next great developer who will create “breakthrough payment solutions.” According to the press release, developers will work in teams and leverage MasterCard’s SDK and open API to build any type of app with a payment connection. Devs will be given all the hardware they need to provide a working mobile payment proof-of-concept, plus given ample amounts of energy drinks to pull all-nighters.
$30,000 is up for grabs: A $10,000 prize for the professional app developer category, a $10,000 prize for the student category, and a people’s choice prize of $10,000. Registration for MasterCard N>XT starts on July 18th.
This developer challenge will only increase the adoption of mobile payments in Canada. MasterCard recently launched their MasterPass payment platform, plus Rogers and CIBC joined together for the Suretap mobile payment system (available on select BlackBerry and Android devices).
Check it out here at MasterCard
