Team Lena has emerged as the overall winner of the MarkHack 5.0 Hackathon held in Lagos after a competitive final pitch event that brought together young innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology developers presenting solutions across education, commerce, gaming, and digital infrastructure.
The grand finale, hosted at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos, featured multiple startup teams drawn from different institutions and professional backgrounds, each given a structured pitching session to present their innovations before a panel of industry judges evaluating scalability, impact, and market viability.
The competition highlighted Nigeria’s growing innovation ecosystem, with Brandspur Brand News reporting that the event reinforced increasing investment interest in youth-led technology solutions across education, marketing technology, and digital commerce platforms.
Team Lena secured the top position with its adaptive learning platform designed to improve educational outcomes for children by combining curriculum-based gaming with personalised tutoring features aimed at making learning more interactive and accessible across African markets.
Market Navigators emerged as first runner-up with its digital infrastructure solution designed to improve navigation within informal markets through QR-code mapping systems that connect shoppers to vendors and simplify product discovery in large commercial spaces such as Lagos markets.
Team Adminting finished as second runner-up with a creator economy-focused platform designed to connect brands with micro and nano influencers through community-driven engagement systems that support measurable digital marketing outcomes for businesses seeking authentic consumer connections.
Other participating teams, including Movable Games, Team Edenn, and Team Readversity, also presented innovative solutions spanning gaming, digital engagement, and educational technology, contributing to a highly competitive final pitch session that attracted attention from industry stakeholders.
The judging panel comprised leading figures from Nigeria’s innovation and marketing ecosystem who evaluated the teams through live presentations and interactive question-and-answer sessions that tested the feasibility and scalability of each proposed solution.
At the conclusion of the event, winners were announced with Team Lena receiving the top prize of ₦2.5 million alongside Amazon Web Services credits to support further development of its educational platform and accelerate product scaling.
Market Navigators received ₦1.5 million and AWS credits as first runner-up, while Team Adminting secured ₦1 million and additional AWS support as second runner-up, with all participating teams also awarded cloud infrastructure credits to support future growth.
Organisers emphasised that the hackathon reflects the rising importance of innovation-driven entrepreneurship in Nigeria’s digital economy, where young developers are increasingly building solutions aimed at solving real-world challenges across education, commerce, and technology systems.
