MONEY LIST · 13 receipts
AI hackathon, XPRIZE, and challenge prize money
Prize money gives an AI project a visible outcome, but it is not the same as customer revenue. This list collects won receipts whose descriptions identify a hackathon, XPRIZE, Kaggle challenge, TreeHacks event, or another challenge-style competition. The records include product demos, research systems, marketplaces, security tools, and films. The useful comparison is not only the prize size. It is also what the project did, how the award was structured, and whether the receipt shows a public record or a maker report.
Polyfork is the largest straightforward hackathon record at $500,000. Lucas Martinic's project sells customisable AI-generated 3D models made by an AI-agent factory. Tician Cierre reports a $200,000 second-place prize for automating VAT-credit claims for Mexican businesses. MyFixAm reports $100,000 for an AI marketplace connecting Nigerian artisans with paying work. Tailored Labs reports a $100,000 hackathon grand prize in cash; its note also records $25,000 in AWS credits. Weight Coach reports $75,000 for second place, with the same additional AWS-credit detail, and KeyHaven reports $50,000 for third place.
The XPRIZE and challenge records use different structures. The Gifted reports a $2.5M XPRIZE grand prize paid as a production investment, plus a $100,000 cash screenplay-development award and a $50,000 audience award. TRAMA AI reports a $50,000 Build with Gemini XPRIZE category prize for an AI agent that runs inventory and orders through WhatsApp. Barber Copilot reports a $50,000 XPRIZE runner-up award for an AI workforce serving barbershops. Drop the Guardrails reports a $50,000 Kaggle-linked challenge first prize, while the receipt labels its evidence as a maker claim. HawkWatch reports an $11k TreeHacks grand prize for an AI security-camera monitor.
The projects have a common shape: each turns a clear technical capability into a concrete demonstration. Tailored Labs edits video with natural-language commands. Weight Coach scans groceries and plans meals by voice. KeyHaven manages API keys. Privacy Guardian Agents automates privacy compliance for codebases. SPED makes video diffusion interactive and won a $50,000 Inference-Time Compute Hackathon prize after a 24-hour build. These are competition outcomes, not proof of durable demand. A prize can validate a prototype, provide capital, or create distribution, but it does not show retention or paying customers.
Evidence varies across the receipts. Several prizes are public records, while Drop the Guardrails is maker-documented as a challenge-linked award and SPED is maker-documented with an event page noted. The $2.5M figure for The Gifted is explicitly an investment structure, not a cash payout. Read the amount label and note before comparing prizes or treating one as available operating cash.
Key takeaways
- Prize money is a competition outcome, not proof of customer revenue or product-market fit.
- The Gifted's $2.5M XPRIZE figure is a production investment, not a simple cash payout.
- The projects turn specific capabilities into demos, from API-key security to AI-generated 3D models.
- Some prizes include credits, investments, or awards beside cash, so read the amount label.
- Public-record, maker-documented, and maker-claim prizes require different follow-up checks.
Receipts in this list
| Product | Maker | Amount | What it is | Built with | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gifted | Jeff Synthesized | $2.5MXPRIZE grand prize, paid as production investment | An AI-produced short film that won the first Google, XPRIZE and Range Media Future Vision XPRIZE. | AI-produced film | Public record |
| Polyfork | Lucas Martinic | $500,000hackathon grand prize | Polyfork sells customizable AI-generated 3D models produced by an AI-agent factory. | Google Gemini, AI agents | Public record |
| Tician Cierre | José Edgar Peña Ramírez | $200,000hackathon second-place prize | Tician Cierre uses AI to help Mexican businesses recover VAT credits by automating tax claims. | Google Gemini | Public record |
| MyFixAm | Jane Chukwuyem Odum and Ayodele Dada | $100,000hackathon third-place prize | MyFixAm is an AI-powered marketplace connecting Nigerian artisans with paying work. | Google Gemini | Public record |
| Tailored Labs | Adrian Humphrey | $100,000hackathon grand prize (cash) | Tailored Labs is an AI-powered video timeline editor that turns raw footage into polished edits with natural-language commands. | Bolt.new | Public record |
| Weight Coach | Sergiy Dybskiy | $75,000hackathon 2nd prize (cash) | Weight Coach is an AI meal-planning app that scans groceries with a phone camera and plans meals by voice. | Bolt.new | Public record |
| TRAMA AI, Corp. | Luis Carlos Reyes Vanegas with Gianfranco, Najem, and Johan Sebastian | $50,000Build with Gemini XPRIZE category prize (Small Business Services) | TRAMA is an AI agent on WhatsApp that runs inventory and orders for mid-size textile companies without an ERP. | Gemini, WhatsApp AI agent | Public record |
| Barber Copilot | Francs Silva | $50,000Build with Gemini XPRIZE runner-up award | Barber Copilot pairs a small human team with specialized AI agents to give hundreds of barbershops customer retention as an AI workforce. | Gemini, specialized AI agents | Public record |
| SPED (Training-Free Interactive World Models) | Bryan Dong, Ray Kasichainula, Subha Vadlamannati and Gino Chiaranaipanich | $50,000grand prize, Inference-Time Compute Hackathon 2026 | SPED makes autoregressive video diffusion interactive, letting a user retarget a generating video mid-stream at real-time speed. | Gemini, FlashAttention 3 | Maker-documented |
| Drop the Guardrails | Kevin Power | $50,000hackathon first prize | Drop the Guardrails compares refusal behavior between plain-text prompts and tool-primed variants of OpenAI gpt-oss-20b. | OpenAI gpt-oss-20b | Maker claim |
| KeyHaven | Tommy Thomas | $50,000hackathon 3rd prize (cash) | KeyHaven is a secure platform for storing, rotating, and monitoring API keys with encryption, analytics, and alerts. | Bolt, Claude, ChatGPT | Public record |
| HawkWatch | Alex Li, Grace Shao, Nils Fleig, and Darryl Tanzil | $11khackathon grand prize | HawkWatch is an AI security-camera monitor that detects shoplifting, assault and medical emergencies and alerts nearby authorities. | AI security-camera monitoring | Public record |
| Privacy Guardian Agents | Nabanita De | $10,000hackathon first prize | Privacy Guardian Agents is a multi-agent governance system that automates privacy compliance for codebases. | AWS GenAI, multi-agent AI governance | Public record |
FAQ
What competitions are included?
The text filter selects won receipts that mention hackathons, XPRIZE, Kaggle, or challenges in the product, what, or amount-label text.
Is every prize cash?
No. The records include cash prizes, AWS credits, a production investment, and awards whose payment details are limited. Each amount label keeps the original wording.
Does winning prove the project has customers?
No. A prize can support a prototype or provide capital, but the receipts do not make a general claim about customer retention or future revenue.
Why is a film included in a hackathon prize list?
The Gifted matches because its receipt identifies the Future Vision XPRIZE. The separate film-festival list uses festival wording and is a different filter.