10 competitions worth entering this week: AI agents, startup pitches, and cash-prize hackathons
A weekly shortlist of 10 open cash-prize competitions, with deadlines, prize pools, eligibility notes, formats, and application links for builders choosing what to enter next.
The fastest decision this week: if you can ship in a day, H0 is still barely open. If you want more runway, Qwen Cloud, Snowflake CoCo CLI, CROO Agent Hackathon, Port Mortem, HEIPowered, and H-BRS all give you July or August deadlines.
I kept this issue to competitions with a visible cash prize or grant amount and a public application page. A few student and policy hackathons surfaced this week, but I left them out when the cash amount was not disclosed on a reachable page.
Quick-reference table
| Competition | Prize | Deadline | Format | Best fit | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H0: Hack the Zero Stack with Vercel v0 and AWS Databases | $80,000 cash, plus $80,000 AWS credits | Jun 30, 8:00 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Jun 29, 5:00 PM PDT | Online | Full-stack builders who can submit a production-style app quickly | Devpost 1 |
| Merck Innovation Cup for AI agents | €10,000 | Jul 1, 5:59 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Jun 30, 23:59 CEST | Remote challenge, finalist presentation in August | AI-for-science builders using an AI co-scientist or agent | Merck application page 2 |
| UK AI Agent Hackathon Ep5 x Conduct | $15,002 | Jul 4, 2026 | In-person, Imperial College London | London-based AI agent builders and university teams | DoraHacks 3 |
| RISE Up Harlingen Business Pitch Competition | $65,000 in grant funding | Jul 7, 6:00 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Jul 6, 5:00 PM Harlingen time | Accelerator plus live pitch night | Startups willing to establish or maintain operations in Harlingen, Texas | Harlingen EDC route via article 4 |
| HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition, second edition | €30,000 total: €15,000, €10,000, €5,000 | Jul 9, 12:00 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Jul 8, 17:00 CET | Online proposal, then in-person pitch for finalists | EIT Higher Education Initiative-backed startups in eligible European countries | Funding portal 5 |
| Global AI Hackathon Series with Qwen Cloud | $45,000 cash; $70,000+ including cloud credits | Jul 10, 5:00 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Jul 9, 2:00 PM PDT | Online | Developers building production-ready AI agents on Qwen Cloud | Devpost 6 |
| CROO Agent Hackathon | $10,200 | Jul 12, 2026 | Virtual | Web3 and agent-commerce builders working on callable AI agents | DoraHacks 7 |
| Snowflake CoCo CLI Hackathon 2026 | $10,000 | Aug 2, 2026 | Online demo day | APJ developers and data professionals building AI-native apps on Snowflake | Hack2Skill 8 |
| Port Mortem 2026: Code Resurrection Hackathon | $1,800 | Jul 31, 8:30 PM GMT+8 registration deadline; source time is 6:00 PM IST | 72-hour online hackathon | Engineers who like code migration, testing, and language-porting problems | Unstop 9 |
| Start-up Cup @ H-BRS: Ideas competition 2026 | Main prizes of €1,000, €750, and €500; special impact prize route may lead to up to €3,000 | Aug 17, 5:59 AM GMT+8; source deadline is Aug 16, 23:59 Germany time | University ideas competition with October final | H-BRS students, employees, and recent alumni with pre-company ideas | H-BRS 10 |
Last-call picks
H0: Hack the Zero Stack with Vercel v0 and AWS Databases
H0 is the urgent one. Devpost lists the deadline as Jun 29 at 5:00 PM PDT, which is Jun 30 at 8:00 AM in GMT+8, and the prize pool is $80,000 in cash plus another $80,000 in AWS credits 1.
The build requirement is concrete: use Vercel or v0 for the front end, use one of the specified AWS Databases, and submit a demo video, Vercel project link, architecture diagram, and proof of AWS Database usage 1. If you already have a half-built B2B, B2C, gaming, social, or open-ended app idea, this is a last-day sprint rather than a leisurely hackathon.
Merck Innovation Cup for AI agents
Merck's AI-agent challenge closes Jun 30 at 23:59 CEST, or Jul 1 at 5:59 AM in GMT+8, with a €10,000 prize for the winning solution 2. Participants choose one of three R&D challenges, then have 48 hours after the challenge text is revealed to submit a five-page, ready-to-publish scientific paper with an AI-generated hypothesis and in-silico results 2.
This is narrow but interesting: it is less about building a polished product and more about proving an AI co-scientist can generate a credible research direction. The winner is expected to present at the Innovation Cup finals on Aug 14, 2026 2.
AI agent and developer builds with more runway
Global AI Hackathon Series with Qwen Cloud
Qwen Cloud is offering $45,000 in cash and more than $70,000 when cloud credits are included; Devpost lists the source deadline as Jul 9 at 2:00 PM PDT, which is Jul 10 at 5:00 AM in GMT+8 6. The tracks are MemoryAgent, AI Showrunner, Agent Society, Autopilot Agent, and EdgeAgent, with each track winner receiving $7,000 cash plus $3,000 in cloud credits 6.
The submission asks for a public code repository, proof of Alibaba Cloud deployment, an architecture diagram, a public demo video, and a project description 6. This is a better fit if you want to build a proper agent architecture, not just a thin wrapper around a chatbot.
CROO Agent Hackathon
CROO Agent Hackathon has a $10,200 prize pool, a virtual format, and a DoraHacks deadline listed for Jul 12, 2026 7. The page tags the hackathon around AI agents, A2A, Web3, DeFi, developer tooling, and on-chain operations 7.
Submission requirements include a GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket link and a demo video 7. Put this on the list if your project idea involves paid or callable agents rather than a general AI app.
Snowflake CoCo CLI Hackathon 2026
Snowflake CoCo CLI Hackathon is an APJ-focused online program with a $10,000 prize pool and registration/prototype submissions ending on Aug 2, 2026 8. Eligible participants include developers, data engineers, data scientists, AI/ML practitioners, and backend or application developers across Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and other APJ regions 8.
The challenges are practical: workflow automation agents, unstructured data intelligence systems, AI-native data applications, and domain-specific copilots built with Snowflake CoCo CLI 8. If you already work with enterprise data, this has a cleaner problem frame than most generic AI hackathons.
Port Mortem 2026: Code Resurrection Hackathon
Port Mortem opens registration on Jun 29 and lists a Jul 31 registration deadline, with a $1,800 cash prize pool and a 72-hour online build window starting Jul 31 9. The premise is unusual: teams port a real open-source project from one language to another while preserving functionality, test behavior, benchmarking, and documentation quality 9.
Eligible teams can have one to four members, and the listed tracks include C to Rust, Zig to Rust, TypeScript to Go, Python to Rust, Go to Rust, JavaScript to Go or Rust, C to Zig, and open language pairs 9. It is not the largest prize this week, but the problem is clear and portfolio-friendly.
UK AI Agent Hackathon Ep5 x Conduct
UK AI Agent Hackathon Ep5 x Conduct lists a $15,002 prize pool and a Jul 4 DoraHacks submission deadline 3. The event schedule runs from an opening ceremony on Jun 28 through workshops and co-working sessions on Jun 29 to Jul 3, ending with demo day on Jul 4 3.
The catch is format: the page lists Imperial College London as the venue, so this is best for people who can actually participate in London 3. Sponsors and ecosystem partners named on the page include Conduct AI, Microsoft, Fetch.ai, Bittensor, Venice.ai, Solana Foundation, Ethereum Foundation, Hugging Face, and others 3.
Startup and pitch competitions
HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition, second edition
HEIPowered has €30,000 allocated as lump-sum prizes: €15,000 for first place, €10,000 for second, and €5,000 for third 5. The call opened on Jun 8 and closes on Jul 8, 2026, with an online proposal stage followed by an in-person pitch competition for the five selected finalists 5.
The eligibility is specific: startups must be legal entities in an EU member state or Horizon Europe-associated third country, must have at least proof-of-concept, prototype, or MVP stage, and must have been created or supported through an EIT Higher Education Initiative-funded project 5. If that describes you, the prize-to-effort ratio looks strong.
RISE Up Harlingen Business Pitch Competition
RISE Up Harlingen is a local pitch competition with $65,000 in grant funding: $30,000 for first place, $20,000 for second, and $15,000 for third 4. The application deadline is Jul 6 at 5:00 PM Harlingen time, which is Jul 7 at 6:00 AM in GMT+8 4.
This one is not broadly open. The program selects ten applicants, and participants must commit to establishing or maintaining business operations within Harlingen city limits 4. If you fit that geography, the required AdvanceUp Accelerator sessions run weekly from Jul 20 through Sep 28, with pitch night on Oct 1 4.
Start-up Cup @ H-BRS: Ideas competition 2026
H-BRS Start-up Cup is a university ideas competition for students, employees, and alumni of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, with main cash prizes of €1,000, €750, and €500 10. The application phase runs from Jun 15 to Aug 16, 2026, and the source deadline is Aug 16 at 23:59 Germany time, which is Aug 17 at 5:59 AM in GMT+8 10.
The competition is limited to H-BRS students, employees, and alumni who graduated no more than ten years ago, and ideas based on already founded companies or active business operations are excluded 10. The special Impact Prize can route the best impact idea into the Bonn Impact Pitch Night, where teams have a chance to win up to €3,000 10.
How I would choose
If you want the biggest upside and can move fast, try H0 first. If you want to build a serious AI-agent project, Qwen Cloud has the cleanest combination of prize size, track definition, and time left. If your strength is enterprise data, Snowflake CoCo CLI is more targeted than a generic agent hackathon. If you are a founder with a location or institutional match, HEIPowered and RISE Up Harlingen are the best pitch paths this week.
For everyone else: check eligibility before you write a line of code. The easiest mistake this week is spending hours on a competition that is country-, region-, university-, or stack-specific.
References
- 1H0 Devpost page
h01.devpost.com
- 2Merck Innovation Cup for AI agents
merckgroup.com
- 3UK AI Agent Hackathon Ep5 x Conduct
dorahacks.io
- 4Rio Grande Guardian on RISE Up Harlingen
riograndeguardian.com
- 5HEIPowered Startup Pitch Competition call
fundingprogrammesportal.gov.cy
- 6Qwen Cloud Devpost page
qwencloud-hackathon.devpost.com
- 7CROO Agent Hackathon
dorahacks.io
- 8Snowflake CoCo CLI Hackathon 2026
hack2skill.com
- 9Port Mortem 2026 on Unstop
unstop.com
- 10H-BRS Start-up Cup 2026
h-brs.de
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