Gloo awards $200,000 in AI hackathon

BOULDER — Gloo Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GLOO), a Boulder-based company that provides artificial intelligence and technology platforms for faith-based organizations, awarded $200,000 in prizes during its 2026 AI Hackathon.

A team from Austin Christian University claimed a $100,000 grand prize for developing an AI tool to help young people leaving the Texas foster-care system. The winning project, Fosterly, uses AI to connect young adults aging out of foster care with services and individuals who can help them transition to independent living.

More than 1,000 participants representing more than 115 teams competed in the hackathon, which began Sept. 8 with a 30-day virtual development period and concluded with an in-person competition Oct. 6-8 at the Limelight Hotel in Boulder.

The event, themed “Building Together: Humans, Agents and the Future of Flourishing,” was open to participants with varying degrees of technical experience.

“At Gloo, we believe AI should be shaped for good, reflecting the needs, values and aspirations of the faith and flourishing ecosystem,” Gloo co-founder and CEO Scott Beck said in a prepared statement. “The Hackathon turns that belief into action.”

Three other teams received $20,000 each for winning individual competition categories:

• Austin Christian University’s Unify team won the Best of Agents category for developing an AI system designed to help nonprofits consolidate software functions that otherwise might require as many as 20 separate applications.

• Frontier Commons won the Best of Ministry Resourcing category for OnBoard, a tool that helps missionaries communicate with donors by collecting and organizing information for newsletters and updates.

• Envoy Mission won the Best of Bible category for developing an offline, private Bible application disguised as an ordinary app. The project is intended for people in countries where possession of a Bible could lead to imprisonment and uses multilingual AI conversations to communicate with users.

Gloo awarded another $40,000 among winners in additional categories.

Entries were evaluated based on their concepts, innovation, potential impact, use of AI and presentations. Judges included Back; Eric Célérier, CEO of HelloBible; Pat Gelsinger, executive chair and head of technology at Gloo; and Scott Mosely, vice president of software at RightNowMedia.

A complete list of winners is available at gloo.com/hackathon.

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