July 2026
Our Co-Founder & Managing Director, Vijay SP, will join the jury panel at the ISB AI BuildLab Hackathon 2026 Grand Finale, taking place at the Khemka Auditorium, ISB Hyderabad campus, on 19 July 2026. Vijay, who leads Tarento with a focus on bridging India's engineering depth with Nordic trust and structure, will evaluate live pitches alongside a panel of venture capitalists, founders, and industry experts.
About the event
The ISB AI BuildLab Hackathon 2026 is ISB's first AI-focused hackathon, run as a six-week, cross-university challenge open to over 1,200 eligible students across eight problem themes. Rather than a single-day build, participants are expected to identify a real-world problem, build a working AI product over six weeks, and pitch it live on stage at the finale. The organisers frame the goal simply: graduate with a venture, not just a degree.
Finalist teams pitch to a panel of venture capitalists, founders, and industry experts at the Khemka Auditorium. A total prize pool of ₹3.5 lakhs is on offer: ₹2,00,000 to the winning team, ₹1,00,000 to the runners-up, and ₹50,000 for third place. Top-performing teams also receive mentorship and a fast-track route into the i-Venture @ ISB incubation programme.
Event at a glance
| Event | ISB AI BuildLab Hackathon 2026, Grand Finale |
| Date | Sunday, 19 July 2026 |
| Venue | Khemka Auditorium, ISB Hyderabad Campus |
| Format | Six-week cross-university build, eight problem themes, live pitch stage |
| Eligible cohort | 1,200+ students |
| Post-event track | Mentorship and incubation fast-track via i-Venture @ ISB |
| Tarento juror | Vijay SP, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Tarento |
Why Tarento is on the jury
Vijay SP brings over 20 years of experience across digital transformation, technology and software development, enterprise solutions, and founder-led growth. He leads Tarento, a Nordic-Indian technology partner founded in 2009 with offices across Stockholm, Helsinki, Bergen, Bengaluru, and Indore, delivering technology services to enterprises including IKEA, Puma, Hero, OLA Electric, and UIDAI (Aadhaar).
That background shapes his approach to judging. A working prototype and a polished pitch deck demonstrate an idea, but scaling a product to real users demands a different set of decisions: pricing, operations, team-building, and execution under constraint.
Tarento partners with enterprises to deliver technology services across digital engineering, AI, ERP, integration, and managed services, co-creating intelligent, future-ready solutions for enterprise and public sector clients. Reviewing early-stage AI ventures directly to that work: understanding where AI ideas are heading before they reach the enterprises Tarento serves.
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