Fireblaze Tech League 1.2: AI CFO Hackathon Brings 20 Student Teams to Nagpur

Fireblaze Tech League 1.2: AI CFO Hackathon Brings 20 Student Teams to Nagpur

How Fireblaze AI School's flagship AI hackathon turned a 21-day innovation sprint into a landmark finance-automation showcase at Mate Square, Nagpur.

Published by Fireblaze AI School | Event Date: 13 June 2026 | Venue: Mate Square, Nagpur, Maharashtra

On 13 June 2026, Fireblaze AI School hosted the grand finale of Fireblaze Tech League (FTL) 1.2, an AI CFO hackathon built around the theme "Build an AI-Powered Platform for Finance, Compliance & Automation." After a 21-day innovation sprint, 20 student teams presented working AI products at Mate Square, Nagpur, with Team TitansTECH taking home the championship title.

Why AI CFO? The Rise of AI in Finance and Compliance Automation

Finance has always run on precision, but rarely on speed. Compliance checks, audit trails, reconciliation, and financial reporting have long been slow, manual, and error prone, creating a bottleneck in an era where businesses need real-time decisions. Artificial intelligence in finance is changing that equation.

From automated fraud detection to predictive cash-flow modelling, AI is fast becoming the operating layer of the modern CFO's office. Enterprises are already deploying intelligent agents that flag compliance risks before they escalate, forecast revenue with precision, and convert raw financial data into instant, actionable insight.

This is exactly the problem space Fireblaze AI School chose for FTL 1.2. The theme wasn't chosen for novelty. Finance automation AI is one of the most in-demand, high-impact skill areas in tech today, and Fireblaze AI School wanted its students building for the real world, not just for a leaderboard.

What Is Fireblaze Tech League?

Fireblaze Tech League is Fireblaze AI School's signature AI hackathon initiative, designed to push students beyond classroom learning into applied, industry-grade problem solving. The mission is simple: turn learners into builders.

Instead of testing theoretical knowledge, FTL challenges participants to design, code, and pitch complete AI-powered products under real deadlines and real mentorship, mirroring the pace of an actual product team. FTL 1.2 scaled this mission further, bringing together 20 competing teams for a three-week, mentor-guided product-building marathon that closed with a high-energy final showcase in Nagpur.

The 21-Day AI Hackathon Journey: From Idea to Innovation

FTL 1.2 wasn't a single-day hackathon. It was a full 21-day competition arc, structured to mirror the real lifecycle of building a product.

Week 1: Ideation & Problem Framing. Teams dove into the AI CFO theme, researching real pain points in financial compliance, audit automation, reporting, and decision support. Under the guidance of Faculty Lead Malhar Kerzarkar, teams moved past generic dashboard ideas to identify genuinely useful, technically feasible problem statements.

Week 2: Mentoring & Architecture. The most intensive phase. Mentors Yash Sir, Anjali Ma'am, and Malhar Sir ran structured sessions reviewing system architecture, AI model choices, data pipelines, and UX flow. Teams pressure-tested their ideas, pivoted where needed, and began serious development, integrating LLMs, automation workflows, and compliance logic into working prototypes.

Week 3: Development & Presentation Prep. In the final stretch, teams focused on shipping functional MVPs, refining AI features, and preparing pitch decks and live demos. Mock review rounds sharpened storytelling, because in the real world, a great product still needs a great pitch.

By day 21, every team had turned a raw idea into a demonstrable, working AI platform.

Inside the Final Event: AI CFO Hackathon Day at Mate Square, Nagpur

On 13 June 2026, three weeks of work converged at Mate Square, Nagpur, Maharashtra, for an 8-hour-30-minute showcase running from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM.

The venue buzzed from the opening ceremony onward. Twenty teams set up their stations, laptops humming and pitch decks ready, in an atmosphere that felt part product showcase, part celebration, part reunion of a community that had spent three weeks building together.

The day opened with a welcome address, followed by remarks from Chief Guest Mr. Abhijeet. Round 1 evaluations were led by judge Ms. Rani Walke, who assessed all 20 teams on technical execution, problem-solution fit, and use of AI. Shortlisted finalists then presented before Mr. Aniruddha Kalbande in an intense Final Round, where deep technical questioning separated strong prototypes from truly exceptional ones.

For a day, Mate Square became a hub of applied AI innovation, a strong signal of Nagpur's emergence as a serious tech city in central India.

Student Projects: AI-Powered Solutions for Finance & Compliance Automation

What stood out most at FTL 1.2 wasn't just the polish of the demos. It was the depth of thinking behind them. Teams built platforms addressing real gaps in the finance and compliance stack, including:

• AI-powered compliance monitoring agents that flag regulatory risks in financial documents automatically
• Intelligent expense and audit automation tools using LLMs to parse, categorize, and validate financial records
• Predictive financial analytics dashboards offering CFO-level insight into cash flow, risk, and forecasting
• Conversational finance assistants capable of answering complex compliance and reporting queries in natural language
• Document intelligence systems for automated invoice processing and financial statement analysis

Across the board, teams leaned into practical AI engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, and automation pipelines, proving that student-built solutions can meaningfully approach enterprise-grade financial technology.

Winner Spotlight: TitansTECH Takes Home the FTL 1.2 Championship

After a full day of sharp presentations and sharper judging, one team stood out for the strength, polish, and real-world readiness of its AI CFO platform: TitansTECH, comprising Mrunal Jagtap, Rishika Itankar, Paras Choudhari, and Nikhil Patil.

TitansTECH impressed judges with a solution that balanced technical depth with genuine usability, tackling financial compliance and automation with a maturity that felt well beyond a 21-day build. Their win was more than a leaderboard result. It demonstrated what focused mentorship, disciplined execution, and curiosity can produce in three weeks.

Meet the Team Behind FTL 1.2: Faculty, Mentors & Judges

No hackathon of this scale runs on ideas alone. It runs on people who show up early, stay late, and care deeply about student growth.

Faculty Lead Malhar Kerzarkar anchored the entire initiative, shaping the problem statement, guiding teams, and keeping the competition rooted in real industry relevance. He was supported by a dedicated organizing team including Yash, Anjali, and Rani Walke, who together ensured teams had the structure and support to succeed. Mentors Yash Sir, Anjali Ma'am, and Malhar Sir guided teams through the toughest technical decisions of the competition.

In Their Own Words: Quotes from FTL 1.2

"AI CFO wasn't just a theme, it was a challenge to our students to think like builders solving real business problems, not just hackathon participants chasing a prize."
Malhar Kerzarkar, Faculty Lead, Fireblaze AI School

"What impressed me most in Round 1 was how many teams had actually understood the compliance domain, not just the AI tooling around it. That's a rare maturity to see in a 21-day sprint."
Ms. Rani Walke, Judge, Round 1

"The final round conversations felt like real product reviews. Teams could defend their architecture, their data choices, and their reasoning, that's exactly the kind of talent the industry needs."
Mr. Aniruddha Kalbande, Judge, Final Round

"Winning FTL 1.2 still feels surreal. We rebuilt our core automation module twice in three weeks. The mentorship pushed us to not settle for good enough."
Mrunal Jagtap, Team TitansTECH

"Events like FTL show students that they don't have to wait years to start building things that matter. Nagpur has real, serious tech talent, today proved it."
Mr. Abhijeet, Chief Guest

FTL 1.2 Key Highlights & Achievements

• 20 teams competed over a 21-day innovation cycle
• A rigorous two-round judging process, from domain screening to deep technical evaluation
• A full-day final showcase of 8 hours 30 minutes of live demos, pitches, and evaluations at Mate Square, Nagpur
• A strong, industry-aligned problem statement centered on AI, compliance, and financial automation
• Structured, hands-on mentorship across the entire competition timeline
• TitansTECH crowned champions for their AI CFO platform

Why AI Hackathons Like FTL Matter for India's AI Talent Pipeline

Hackathons like FTL 1.2 are more than competitions, they are talent pipelines. As India's AI ecosystem accelerates, the gap between classroom learning and industry-ready skills is best closed through applied, mentored, deadline-driven experience.

By anchoring FTL 1.2 in a genuinely difficult, business-relevant theme, AI-powered finance and compliance, Fireblaze AI School gave its students something more valuable than a certificate: proof that they can build real solutions to real problems, under real constraints.

Nagpur, often overlooked in India's tech-hub conversations, is quietly building a reputation as a city where serious student innovation happens. FTL 1.2 added another strong data point to that story.

What's Next for Fireblaze Tech League?

FTL 1.2 set a new benchmark in scale, theme relevance, and quality of student output. Looking toward future editions, Fireblaze AI School's vision is clear: bigger cohorts, deeper industry partnerships, and problem statements pulled directly from the frontier of applied AI.

If FTL 1.2 is any indication, the next edition of Fireblaze Tech League won't just be a hackathon. It will be a launchpad for the next wave of India's AI builders.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fireblaze Tech League 1.2

What is Fireblaze Tech League (FTL)? Fireblaze Tech League is Fireblaze AI School's flagship student hackathon, designed to help learners build real, industry-grade AI products through mentorship, structured deadlines, and live pitch evaluations.

What was the theme of FTL 1.2? The theme was "AI CFO – Build an AI-Powered Platform for Finance, Compliance & Automation," challenging teams to apply AI to real problems in financial compliance, audit automation, and decision support.

Who won Fireblaze Tech League 1.2? Team TitansTECH, Mrunal Jagtap, Rishika Itankar, Paras Choudhari, and Nikhil Patil, won FTL 1.2 with their AI-powered finance and compliance automation platform.

How many teams participated in FTL 1.2? 20 teams competed over the full 21-day competition cycle, culminating in a final showcase at Mate Square, Nagpur.

Where was the FTL 1.2 final event held? The final event was held at Mate Square, Nagpur, Maharashtra, on 13 June 2026, running for 8 hours 30 minutes from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM.

What is an "AI CFO" platform? An AI CFO platform refers to AI-powered software that automates finance functions such as compliance monitoring, audit checks, financial forecasting, and reporting, effectively acting as an intelligent decision-support layer for finance teams.

About Fireblaze AI School

Fireblaze AI School is a Nagpur-based technology education institute dedicated to building industry-ready AI and data talent through hands-on, mentor-led learning. Through initiatives like Fireblaze Tech League, the school bridges the gap between academic learning and real-world product development, empowering students to build, innovate, and compete at an industry standard.