The Email Game — ₹1.6L Global Email & AI Hackathon

The Email Game is a global, fully online hackathon run by WithAI Research, an organisation that pushes artificial intelligence forward through research work and community challenges. The brief is broad on purpose: take email — one of the most widely used tools in modern life — and improve it with code. That could mean catching phishing attempts, cleaning up spam, or building an AI helper that reads and drafts mail for you.

Entry is open to anyone, anywhere. Solo developers, machine learning engineers, security researchers and small teams all compete on the same terms, and there is no geographic restriction on who can register.

The build window runs from 24 July 2026 to 1 August 2026, entirely over the internet, with submissions closing on 1 August 2026. Projects are assessed on creativity, technical implementation and potential impact; the complete judging criteria and the required submission format sit on the official Devpost listing.

The total prize pool is ₹1.6L, or roughly ₹1,56,400. How that sum is divided between winning ranks has not been published. Registration and project submission both happen through the official Devpost page: https://the-email-game.devpost.com/

Why it matters: email is still the backbone of business communication and a favourite target for attackers, so working solutions to everyday problems in how mail is secured, managed and automated have real-world weight. No registration fee is mentioned, which means the only cost of taking part is your own development time.

• Global online hackathon run by WithAI Research — no geographic restrictions on who can enter
• Build and submit between 24 July 2026 and 1 August 2026; deadline is 1 August 2026
• Total prize pool of ₹1.6L (about ₹1,56,400); prize split by rank is not published
• Open to individuals and teams, with no age limit or team-size cap mentioned
• Projects should tackle email problems — phishing detection, spam filtering, email management or AI email assistants
• Judged on creativity, technical implementation and potential impact; entries are submitted via Devpost

Who can enter: everyone. The Email Game puts no geographic restriction on participation, so applicants from India and elsewhere register on equal terms.

• Individuals and teams are both welcome, and you may work solo or as part of a group.
• No age limit is stated, and no cap on team size is mentioned.
• No sector or entity requirement applies — you do not need to be a registered company, and nothing suggests a particular company structure is needed to take part.

The competition is pitched at developers, machine learning engineers, cybersecurity professionals and AI enthusiasts, but the stated eligibility is simply "open to all", so anyone drawn to improving email technology can throw their hat in.

The Email Game — ₹1.6L Global Email & AI Hackathon is open to startups at any stage. It is open to startups registered anywhere in India.

The most recent application window for The Email Game — ₹1.6L Global Email & AI Hackathon closed on 1 Aug 2026. Many programmes run repeat cohorts, so it is worth checking the official site for the next round.

The award on offer is a cash prize pool of ₹1.6L, approximately ₹1,56,400, put up by WithAI Research for this challenge.

• The breakdown of that pool by finishing position has not been published, so the exact payout attached to first place or any other rank is not known from the available details.
• No registration fee is mentioned anywhere in the programme information, making entry effectively free.
• Nothing about equity is described — the reward is a prize, so participants are not handing over a stake in anything they build.
• The benefit is limited to the cash prize; no incubation, mentorship or follow-on funding is described.

There is a single online route in: you register on the official Devpost page and submit your finished project there before the closing date.

Assessment rests on three stated measures:

• Creativity — how original the idea behind the solution is.
• Technical implementation — how well the project has actually been built.
• Potential impact — how much difference it could make to real email problems.

The precise scoring rubric and the required submission format are published on the hackathon's Devpost page, so read that listing before finalising your entry. No multi-round funnel, interviews or live pitch stage is described — judging happens on the submitted project.

Before you apply to The Email Game — ₹1.6L Global Email & AI Hackathon, keep the following documents ready:

• A pitch deck or short business plan describing the problem, product and traction
• Company registration documents and PAN
• Founder identification (PAN / Aadhaar) and brief profiles
• Recent financial statements or projections
• Product details — a demo, prototype or working link if available

Exact requirements are confirmed on the official application portal — treat this as a preparation checklist.

The Email Game — ₹1.6L Global Email & AI Hackathon is best suited for startups in India seeking non-dilutive funding of ₹1.6L. If that describes your startup, review the eligibility criteria above before applying.