Paiflow Takes 1st Runner-Up at the Build on Stellar Philippines Hackathon

Two Artisam Labs interns closed out the first Build on Stellar Philippines Hackathon with a 1st runner-up finish for Paiflow (formerly Pink Raft) — and a ticket to the regional APAC round.

A seven-day sprint

The Build on Stellar Philippines Hackathon ran May 18–24, 2026 as an intensive seven-day online build, gathering developers, designers, and founders from across the Filipino tech scene around a single brief: make money work better for every Filipino. Carl Macabales (Mapúa University) and Mychal Pejana (FEU Institute of Technology) took that brief and ran with it, under the mentorship of Mark Hugh Neri, co-founder of Artisam Labs.

What Paiflow does

Paiflow tackles a real barrier on Stellar: deploying programmable payments has, until now, meant knowing Rust and Soroban smart contracts. Paiflow removes that requirement — it lets builders stand up programmable payment flows on the Stellar Network without writing contract code, opening the network’s capabilities to a far wider range of developers.

From 30 teams to the podium

The field started at more than 30 teams; only 15 advanced to the final pitch, held May 23 at PDAX in a hybrid live-and-online format that put finalists in the same room as judges and members of the Stellar Philippines team. Paiflow’s 1st runner-up finish sends Carl, Mychal, and Mark through to the Stellar APAC Hackathon, where they’ll represent the Philippines against top teams from Indonesia and Vietnam.

The result reflects what Artisam Labs is built to do: back young talent, ship real solutions, and push financial inclusion forward across the region.