Hackademy, developed in partnership with HSBC’s Technology Academy, is the bank’s largest global innovation and learning initiative, designed to drive transformative business solutions in financial services. This cutting-edge program brings together HSBC’s technology employees from around the world, empowering them to tackle real-world challenges through immersive innovation sprints, hands-on product development training, and collaborative problem-solving.



By bridging business and technology, Hackademy not only addresses HSBC’s biggest strategic opportunities but also accelerates the development of resilient, scalable, and customer-centric solutions aligned with the organization’s innovation roadmap.

Over the three years of Hackademy, we introduced key enhancements that redefined its impact. With expanded learning opportunities, including workshops on startup APIs, design sprints, and venture management strategies, participants gain cutting-edge skills essential for modern technology leaders.

Focused innovation themes such as digital banking, automation at scale, and net-zero solutions inspired teams to create tangible downstream value while addressing critical industry priorities. Strong business sponsorship and post-event action plans ensure the ideas generated evolve into impactful, long-term solutions. Hackademy not only reinforces HSBC’s leadership in financial technology but sets a gold standard for corporate innovation programs in the banking sector.

In an era of rapid technological advancement and shifting market dynamics, HSBC recognized the critical need for its C-Suite executives to embrace a founder’s mindset and innovate with the speed of a startup.



Leaders need to combine agility, entrepreneurial thinking, and innovative strategies to outpace competitors and drive transformative change within the organization.



Traditional banking practices often hinder this shift, creating a gap between visionary leadership and practical execution. The challenge lay in fostering a culture of experimentation and bold problem-solving, empowering leaders to rethink financial services and deliver customer-first solutions at scale.

HSBC’s answer to this challenge was the Innovation Catalyst — a 12-week incubator program specifically designed to upskill senior executives and equip them with the tools, frameworks, and entrepreneurial thinking necessary for digital transformation. 



Through immersive workshops, leaders explored the journey from ideation to MVP development, solving genuine problems for HSBC customers. By collaborating with startup founders, subject matter experts, junior mentors and agile teams of developers and designers, executives at HSBC cultivated a deep understanding of innovation processes. The program culminated in a Final Demo Day where senior leaders at HSBC were able to create market-ready solutions in just 12 weeks.

GradHack was geared towards recent graduates from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to compete and build products for HSBC's transition to Net-Zero and the international scale of product offerings.

GradHack is a high-impact innovation program that accelerates the development of technology graduates, preparing them to solve real-world challenges and drive business impact from day one.



Across four weeks, more than 160 participants in 30+ product teams worked with 25+ expert mentors to ideate, prototype, and pitch digital products. 



The program builds essential transferable skills such as leadership, project planning, and effective workplace communication, ensuring graduates can thrive in dynamic, team-driven environments. By fostering collaboration and problem-solving, GradHack equips new hires to lead and take part in innovation projects confidently.

GradHack immerses participants in cutting-edge business and technical practices, from design thinking and product roadmap planning to product prototyping and programming. Graduates gain hands-on expertise in market research, business analysis, and pitch presentation, supported by industry leaders such as AWS and Google. 



With a focus on emerging technologies and agile methodologies, GradHack provides leaders with a proven framework to upskill graduates, develop entrepreneurial mindsets, and deliver impactful solutions for the future of business.