Code For Compassion Brazil: Inside our First Fully Online Hackathon
Glimpses from our online hackathon conducted on 29/March/26
On 29th March 2026, the Code for Compassion team hosted the first fully online hackathon, which was a pilot event bringing together coders across Brazil to build solutions for the animal advocacy movement. The event, which ran entirely over Discord, marked a new shift in format from previous hackathons in Bengaluru and Mumbai, which used hybrid and fully in-person models, respectively.
Brazil has this beautiful, buzzing energy when it comes to people who care about animals. The community there is passionate, connected, and deeply committed to making life better for animals. On top of that, the STEM ecosystem is growing fast, in a way that feels very similar to what we have seen unfold in India. When we looked at where to take our online format for the first time, Brazil felt like the obvious answer.
What Happened During the Hackathon
The challenges were sourced directly from the organizations working on ground in the space of animal advocacy . We had submissions from Mercy for Animals, Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal, The Pollination Project, and Vida Veg. Giving the event a sense of real-world urgency.
Problems on the table ranged from replacing animal use in scientific research, to AI-powered grant writing tools, to free strategic planning platforms for small plant-based businesses.
Every single team that showed up that day inspired us.
Where did the challenges come from?
The problem statements came straight from the people working in the field of animal advocacy in Brazil. Mercy for Animals, Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal, The Pollination Project, and Vida Veg all brought their real challenges to the table, from replacing animal use in scientific research to building free strategic planning tools for small plant-based businesses. These were not hypothetical briefs. They were genuine needs from people trying to change the world right now.
Two teams that delivered
Method Finder took on one of the most ambitious challenges of the day. They built a system that helps researchers find validated, non-animal alternatives to animal-based research methods. A researcher can describe their methodology in plain language, or paste a protocol directly into the tool, and the system figures out the underlying biological question, maps it to peer-reviewed non-animal alternatives, and produces structured output ready for grant applications or ethics board submissions.
Plantbiz built a free strategic planning platform designed specifically for small plant-based businesses, a space where the need is huge and the tools are usually far too expensive. Their product, Business Copilot, helps small business owners understand their numbers and think through the impact of decisions before making them. To keep the platform free, the team developed a hybrid model where most features run without AI, reserving it only for high-value tasks like insights and scenario modelling. Users can unlock those features by watching short ads.
What Comes Next
This Brazil hackathon pilot delivered lessons and direction for our future online hackathon.
Ash Singh, CEO of Electric Sheep, put it plainly: "Brazil is exactly the kind of community we want to be building with. Passionate, purpose-driven, and ready to use technology as a force for good. Watching coders come together with animal advocacy organizations to tackle real challenges in just six hours was nothing short of inspiring. This is only the beginning."
We are planning more online hackathons to reach coders across more geographies, while keeping our in-person and hybrid events going strong at the same time. The six-hour format will evolve, but the heart of this, that is, sourcing real challenges from people doing real work in the field, is something we are taking with us into everything we do next.
Big thanks to the Code for Compassion (C4C) team: Ash Singh (Electric Sheep), Rishika Pandey (Electric Sheep), and Sam Tucker-Davis (Open Paws).
ENDS
Contact: hello@electricsheep.is
Notes for Editors
Electric Sheep is a global accelerator and edtech for secure, compassionate AI. Its fellowships, hackathons and dedicated bricks-and-mortar acceleration hub in Bangalore are laser-focussed on reducing AI harms while building AI that supports the welfare and flourishing of all sentient life - www.electricsheep.is . It was incubated along with technical partners and compassionate AI model pioneers Open Paws - www.openpaws.ai - by Kickstarting for Good in November 2024.
More info on Code for Compassion and the campus can be found here -
www.electricsheep.is/code-for-compassionwww.electricsheep.is/campus
