Using OpenClaw and other open source agentic AI systems
Build Intelligence That Moves The Real World
40 Teams · 10 Tracks
“Agentic AI is creating the biggest wave of opportunity we’ve seen in decades, giving small teams a level of leverage that was previously unimaginable. The Future Caribbean Buildathon is placing the region directly in the path of that wave.”
“The Caribbean is one of the world’s great opportunity regions.”
The Opportunity
The Caribbean is a powerful deployment environment for the next generation of AI systems — a $700 billion regional economy with global connectivity, high tourism flows, sophisticated financial centres, strong creative industries, deep diaspora networks, and multiple focused markets where new technologies can be tested, embedded, and scaled.
Future Caribbean is built around that opportunity: using agentic AI to strengthen how capital, goods, services, information, talent, visitors, and institutions move across the region.
From Barbados to Bermuda, Cayman, Jamaica, Trinidad, The Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean and beyond, the region already has centres of excellence in finance, tourism, corporate services, energy, culture, logistics, climate resilience, and entrepreneurship. Future Caribbean brings those strengths into a coordinated build environment for founders, investors, institutions, governments, and global technology partners.
This is where new systems can be built, tested, deployed, and scaled — for the Caribbean and for distributed markets around the world.
“If it works in the Caribbean, it scales globally.”
“Across the Caribbean, communities are on the frontlines of climate shocks — from hurricanes to droughts — with direct impacts on food security, livelihoods, and resilience. Artificial intelligence and digital innovation offer powerful opportunities to anticipate risks earlier, coordinate responses faster, and better protect vulnerable communities. I look forward to engaging with teams on the challenges and opportunities that Agentic AI can bring to disaster coordination and food security across the region.”
Definition
What Is A Buildathon?
A buildathon is a focused period of building.
Over a 21-day sprint, selected teams work with mentors, operators, institutions, and technical experts to develop practical solutions to real-world opportunities.
FutureCaribbean is fully remote and open to participants from anywhere in the world.
The goal is not simply to generate ideas.
The goal is to build working infrastructure.
The top 40 selected teams receive compute credits from Highrise AI to build during the 21 day sprint. The best companies will receive introductions to funding, infrastructure, visibility, and real opportunities for deployment.
Using open-source AI frameworks, agentic systems, automation infrastructure, and frontier AI tooling, teams will build systems capable of improving how economies coordinate across sectors including:
Opportunity Tracks
40 Teams. 10 Tracks.
Future Caribbean will select 40 teams globally to participate across 10 opportunity tracks focused on deployable AI systems and real operational infrastructure. Selected teams will receive compute resources from Highrise AI during a 21-day build sprint.
The Build Phase
The top 40 selected teams join a 21-day remote build phase with access to:
All 40 selected teams receive managed access to substantial NVIDIA H200-class compute infrastructure provided by Highrise throughout the 21-day build period — supporting the development of production-grade AI systems.
This is not a sandbox. It is real infrastructure for building real systems at scale.
Prizes
Cash awards, AI deployment systems, a DMZ scholarship, and a live pitch at the New York Stock Exchange.
Cash Awards
OWC AI Deployment Systems
OWC is providing Thunderbolt 5 AI deployment systems to winning teams — enabling local AI acceleration, high-speed storage, edge deployment, and sovereign compute experimentation beyond the Buildathon.
🎓 DMZ Soft Landing Scholarship
Winners receive a scholarship to the 1-week North American Soft Landing Programme at DMZ at Toronto Metropolitan University — one of the world's top startup incubators — opening doors to the North American market and global investor networks.
Winning teams will also receive:
The Finale
Winners Present Live
In front of regional and global capital.
The finale is not the finish line. It is the beginning of what comes next.
The top teams will present their solutions to a curated audience of investors, venture capital firms, family offices, development finance institutions, corporate partners, foundations, and innovation leaders from across the Caribbean and around the world.
This is where ideas become companies. Where pilots become partnerships. Where builders connect with the capital, customers, mentors, and networks needed to scale.
Build something real. Present it live. Launch it to the Caribbean. Scale it to the world.
NYSE Opportunity
Pitch Live at the
New York Stock Exchange
The top 3 winning teams will travel to New York City in September (flights and hotel covered) to:
From the Caribbean to Global Markets
Selected teams will then be introduced to international investors and strategic partners through FutureCaribbean's global network — beginning at the New York Stock Exchange, where final winners present in front of global investors with their company names showcased on the screens above the trading floor.
Build in the Caribbean. Scale globally.
Timeline
The Road to the Finale
Our Vision
Not because it is simple.
Because it is complex.
We believe the Caribbean is one of the most important deployment environments for agentic AI in the world right now.
Multiple countries.
Multiple currencies.
Multiple languages.
Multiple legal systems.
That is exactly the kind of coordination opportunity that agentic AI was built to solve.
The teams that learn to build for the Caribbean may create solutions with relevance far beyond the region itself. Infrastructure built here — for real constraints, real communities, real governments — is infrastructure that can travel.
FutureCaribbean exists to discover those teams, accelerate their work, and connect their solutions to the institutions, capital, and markets that can take them global.
Not theoretical systems. Deployable systems.
Not isolated demos. Working coordination infrastructure.
Not just for the Caribbean. For fragmented markets everywhere.
Open Ecosystem
Build In Public
FutureCaribbean is not only a competition. It is a live ecosystem.
Builders are encouraged to:
The Panel
Judges, Advisors & Leaders
Meet judges, advisors, investors, operators, researchers, and technical leaders helping shape the future of AI deployment across real-world economies.
Additional advisors, institutional partners, and global judges will be announced over the coming weeks
Join Us
Join Us
Whether you are a builder, founder, researcher, investor, institution, government, sponsor, or community leader — there is a role for you in shaping what comes next. The Caribbean is ready to move as one market. We're building the infrastructure to make it happen.
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Questions about applying? apply@futurecaribbean.com