Startup Battle Final & Award Ceremony | EBC12

So, we're going to have two incredible judges come up on stage. Each of the three finalists will take the stage. They will have 3 minutes to present, and it will go by quickly, and then there will be 3 minutes for questions and answers with the judges, the audience—you name it . It will be fun. It's going to be dynamic, atmospheric, and we're going to hand out some huge checks— huge checks— you know, the biggest you've ever seen.

After we complete all the final performances, our two judges on stage from our wonderful sponsors will tally up all the scores. They will automatically arrive on my iPad, and we will announce the winners right on stage. We will be handing out three huge checks, followed by a paparazzi moment where all the winners will be on stage with their checks in hand, and it will be your chance to take pictures at the end. So don't miss this. This will be really fun.

As I said fun. As I said , startups don't know yet whether they've made it here. This is all still a mystery. This is where they find out. We had 12 incredible startups trying to get to this final, this to this final, this Battle Royale, and they all performed brilliantly.

The judges were impressed with the innovation, the presentations, the teams, the product-market fit—the best of everything. But you know what? There can only be three winners. There can only be three winners of this pitch competition for EBC 12 pitch competition for EBC 12 . Another reminder: please share your emotions, create feelings of FOMO and envy, use the hashtag EBC 12 in your social media posts, and be sure to tag the speakers who are on stage.

Okay, amigos. I would like to express my gratitude to our sponsors who supported this amazing finale of the startup battle. We are very grateful to you and incredibly grateful for your support. So I want to say a special thank you to Soft Stack, Generous, CoinTelegraph, and Xcelerus. Thank you all very much for your support.

We really appreciate it. And what can I say? We will have big checks. There will be surprises on stage . We will have a Q& A with the audience.

And we'll have fun, fun, fun. So, my friends. Listen, I understand that it's been two busy days and you're two busy days and you're probably tired, but I have a question for you, which I hope you can answer in the affirmative. Want to see the startups for the grand the startups for the grand finale? Yes!

Gay! Oh, fantastic. You made my day. Thank you very much, my friends. Perfectly.

Okay, that's brilliant. So, now I will announce the finalists. And we'll see if they're here. If they are here, they advance to the finals. If not—we move on to the next item on the list move on to the next item on the list .

Such a cruel world. So, the team that received the most points in the qualifying rounds is 82 out of 100, which is not so little. This is the Satschel Bridge team. Is Satschel Bridge in the hall? There is Satschel, well done.

Okay, listen, great. Applause for Satschel Bridge. Okay, nice to see you. So, we have Satschel Bridge. You will...

Oh Satschel Bridge. You will...Oh , can we have a clicker? We just...I forgot to bring the clicker.

So, can we have a clicker? I forgot it . It's my fault. So, we have Satschel Bridge and you will be one of the three finalists. Good luck to you, friend.

Now I'll tell you who's next. We continue down the list. So, with 74 points, in second place, or sharing second place, is —Limpid, L-Y-M-P-I-D. Is Limpid in the hall L-Y-M-P-I-D. Is Limpid in the hall ?

Limpid, yes, we have Limpid. Okay, come in, brilliant. Well done, come up here. Perfectly. You see how they calmly enter the stage.

They are ready to repeat all this in 3 minutes. This is fantastic. And in second place, according to the jury's decision, Cryptoss advances to the finals . Cryptoss, there is Crypt, yes, fantastic. Okay, Cryptoss, brilliant.

Come up here. Okay, we have Cryptoss on stage , that's great. So, you wait here for a minute, because I'm going to tell you who our judges are. We are pleased and honored to welcome the representative of Generous. Applause for Jana McLink.

Applause for Yana, thank you very much. Okay Yana, thank you very much. Okay . It's great to see you, Yana. Thank you very much for your support.

We are happy to see you as a judge. And our second judge for this incredible, exciting finale is exciting finale is from Safestack. Welcome Michael van Baden. Thank you. Okay, I'll put it this way: based on the points we've scored, we'll invite Sasbridge, Limpid, and Cryptoss to impress us on stage, as they compete for victory.

Each of them will receive a prize— them will receive a prize— at least 10,000, 20,000, or 40,000. But who will get each specific check, we will decide now. So I invite Cryptoss and Limpid to sit down over there. And we will ask Sasbridge to stay on stage. We invite our judges to sit down and make themselves comfortable .

And for Sasbridge, we have a clicker here. God, I'm so worried. This is really great. Okay, I don't want to add to the tension, but we're talking about 40 thousand. So, Yes.

This is cool. So, my dear friend, you have 3 minutes, we wish you success, and we ask the audience to support you with applause. Let's go. 3 2 1. Yes, my name is Daria, I represent the Lightning Bitcoin—Bridge project, with the Vaults product.

Bitcoiners collectively own the most capital in crypto as a single community. To do something in DeFi, they have to deal with high transfer fees, the risks of custodial services, or the need to create new wallets. That is, create a new one. And all this is quite painful all this is quite painful . So what do we offer them?

We offer a special technology built on the LNURL protocol. We also use a time-tested protocol in DeFi called Safe to manage multi-signature wallets. We abstract fees for users through account abstraction, withdrawing them in satoshis via Lightning. The process is very simple. Scan, view, execute.

The user simply scans the QR code, and that's it . No setup costs. No fees in native tokens. Zero ether spent. No thrones are needed.

No " needed. No " salts" (sol) are needed. This is truly the biggest paradigm shift. Usually, people can't get all four different features in one product. So this should be a DeFi- So this should be a DeFi- native solution.

This should require a new wallet, but we don't require this from the user. This should abstract gas fees. It should be self-custodial. So, we are roughly estimating our market performance. We are quite specific.

We work for Bitcoiners. So, there are about 8 million bitcoins that can be used at any time, because these are speculative bitcoins. They seem prepared for the expense. Further, there are approximately 1.1 million monthly active users.

The assessment was provided by River and was valid for 2023. And there are about a few hundred thousand bitcoins working in DeFi. So users can use this technology to obtain stablecoins, convert them into Bitcoin, and then feel more confident with their favorite asset. On the business side, it's pretty simple. We charge a commission for execution in bitcoins, and this allows you to accumulate them in a corporate account.

And we also provide or can provide routing. This means that we run a public lightning node and receive fees from payments that pass through the network. We made a traditional DeFi game. So, we're launching routers for exchanges, and we can provide B2B infrastructure for any other Bitcoin startups that want their users to have access to DeFi. And at this point we have released a version for the Sepolia testnet.

So you can try it out at walls.dot.sitebridge.com, and we're in the process of releasing more. That's all.

Look at this. Fantasy. They hit the target exactly. Applause for Satoshi. Okay, my friend.

So, you've already done your hard work. And you sit here, and the next part of the hard work is for the judges work is for the judges , to determine the winner , to determine the winner . They will think and digest everything they saw. They will evaluate the performance and everything else. Okay, that's great.

So, now we follow the list and invite Limpid to the stage . Where is Limpid? Bright. Well done. Okay.

So, next up is Limpid. And we have, yes, and we have, the clicker right there. So take this clicker. And we have three wonderful...What is your name, my friend?

Juan. Juan. Okay, hold the microphone closer to your face. And we need to reset the clock. There is contact.

Okay, your 3 minutes of fame starts in 3 2 1. So we processed over 16 million before we realized we were actually solving the wrong problem. At the time, Limpid was a B2C Limpid was a B2C marketplace where you could invest in private assets, such as horses, real estate, private equity, and much more. At that time, we attracted over 10,000 registered users and over 16 million in investment volume. But then something extraordinary started to happen.

Asset managers, developers, and other project authors started asking us a very important question: can we use your infrastructure to launch our own products? So, then we understood something. The problem wasn't demand. The problem was actually in the infrastructure. And why is that?

Because right now, if you want to launch a securities or investment product in the European Union, here's what you need to do. You need to hire a securities lawyer. You need to obtain your own licenses to distribute securities. And then you need to create your own investment platform. It will cost you 300 thousand and take over a year before you get at least one investor and at least one euro.

So we decided to transform our B2C to transform our B2C marketplace into a scalable B2B scalable B2B infrastructure that anyone can use to launch their own securities. It works. They come to us. They ask us what financial instrument they want to create, and we launch a white-label platform that includes everything you need to go to market in 4 weeks and for a fraction of the cost. It includes payments.

It includes a custodian and full management of the securities lifecycle. And we are seeing great results. Over five paying B2B institutional clients. More than 150 leads in the pipeline, representing over 700 million in investment volume. The business model is very simple.

This is a one-time implementation fee, and then there are two variable fees. One is based on the total amount raised, and the other is based on the amount of assets under management. And our team was created specifically for this. I myself worked at BNP Paribas in the audit department, which allowed me to go through all the departments of the bank and understand exactly how it works. My cousin Andre is an expert in the legal aspects of financial institutions.

And our developer, who does the work for five people, is an expert in fintech and Web3. Thank you. Fantastically. Loud applause here. Okay, my friend.

Please sit down here. This is great. Okay, hold that...Oh, no, actually, yes. Sorry.

Thank you. You read my thoughts. Yes, we really need this. OK. Listen, I'm going to discreetly hand over these, well, extremely important QR codes to our two judges.

We will keep them hidden because only our judges can scan these QR can scan these QR codes. And what we're going to do—I forgot— going to do—I forgot— we're going to do a question and answer session for all the guests together when they're on stage. We'll just do a Q& We'll just do a Q& A, and when we're done, we'll give the judges a chance to do their thing. So, we have another pitcher who is going to light up this scene now. And once again, remember what is at stake.

We have grant checks for $10, $ 20, and $40,000. Who will go home with which check ? We will find out about this very soon. But first, we are very happy to welcome our guests back to the stage. Welcome to Kriptos.

OK. Perfectly. Okay, here's your microphone, and over there you have the slide switch. And you have 3 minutes to impress us, let's start right now. Perfectly.

Well, my name is Sakish. I am the CEO and founder of Kriptos. Today I'm here to tell you why we do what we do at Kriptos. At Kriptos, we consolidate all digital asset accounts into one financial report. Each of you is engaged in some financial activity today.

If we look at this example: on the left you see the different types of wallets and exchanges that you use every day. You generate a bunch of financial transactions. And on the right, you see different types of services, whether it's tax software, AI agents, accounting firms, or auditors, that you need for your daily work. But for each of them you have to verify all your data verify all your data . And this is real chaos.

You don't want to face this every time. This is where Kriptos comes to the rescue . Kriptos integrates all financial platforms, so you only need to connect all your accounts once. We call this a single entry. Once you connect your data to Kriptos, you can access all the financial services you need to scale operations, comply with regulatory requirements, or grow your business.

Yes, we also have developers building solutions based on Koinly. This is the only API through which they can access all information with your permission. You can share data about your portfolio, positions, tax information, and they will provide you with their services. So, everything works through an extremely simple registration. Connect wallets, grant permission—and that's it grant permission—and that's it .

Today, we support over 5,000 integrations: DeFi exchanges, blockchains, wallets— blockchains, wallets— everything in between. Why do people come and connect their accounts to Koinly? Because the law now forces them to do so. We have regulations like CARF, MiCA, DAC8 that require tax reporting from exchanges and users. So next year, each of you will have to file a tax return if you haven't already .

And this is where you choose Koinly, connect your data, and gain access to all financial instruments. Today, we have attracted over 40,000 users from 30+ countries, track over 120,000 accounts, and over $300 million in assets. We are the official tax partner of Binance UK, BitMEX, as well as Bitstamp, which is now owned by Robinhood. Our solutions are validated by tax authorities tax authorities such as Skatteverket in Sweden, HMRC in the UK and the New Zealand Revenue Agency. Our business model is simple.

We charge a subscription fee for tax reporting services and accounting solutions for businesses and users. We also provide our APIs so that others can make their own reports or build their own solutions. And, uh... That's all we have time for, I apologize. To be fair to everyone, we should stop the timer at exactly 3 minutes.

Loud applause. It was fantastic. Great job, Cryptos. Sit down, friend. Bright.

Okay, you know what we'll do? We will now have a question and answer session, which I forgot to do earlier. It's going to be a bit chaotic, and the judges have the floor...Oh, yes, you have a microphone. Perfectly.

So, are there any questions from our esteemed judges? It seems you want to get started. Do you want to start? You have the floor. Okay, the stage is yours.

Thank you, guys, for the presentations. As I see it, part of the evaluation is also the dynamics of development and the team. Some of you haven't talked much about your successes or your team. Can all three of you talk a little more about your stage of development and the team? Maybe I'll start since I just finished.

Thanks for the question, by the way. Regarding the dynamics of development, we have been working for several years. We have brought many users and businesses onto the network and are tracking many assets. As for the team assets. As for the team , we have been working in the cryptosphere for over 10 years.

Personally, I co-founded the Telos blockchain network in 2018, one of the first layer 1 networks. I was responsible for all financial matters, and this pushed me to create Cryptos, because at one time we managed assets worth $15-20 million in over 100 accounts. And this is the reality of every cryptocurrency company today. If you are involved in token market making or liquidity, your assets are scattered everywhere and it is complete chaos. And we have billion-dollar funds using Excel spreadsheets that don't scale and disappear when one person leaves the company person leaves the company .

This is a mess. That's why we founded Cryptos, and we have a great team of engineers and tax experts tax experts . So we've been developing this product together for quite some time now . And industry leaders are already confirming the effectiveness of our solution. We have great investors like Binance Labs, Gate Labs, Blockchain Founders Fund who are also our partners.

So yes. For our part, since we moved from B2C to B2B, we received permission for such activities back in March. Since then, we have gained five paying B2B institutional clients. Almost all of them plan to launch products worth between 10 and 12 million. We also managed to generate a large volume of leads in our pipeline.

They are all organic. So none of them are paid. It's all organic. There are about 150 of them. Together they amount to approximately 700 million in assets placed assets placed , which we can later tokenize and create securities for.

Regarding the team, I personally worked at BNP Paribas for over 5 years. I managed to work in almost all departments of the banking institution banking institution : from commercial and marketing to risks, control and compliance— I have already gone through everything that exists in the bank I have already gone through everything that exists in the bank . And my cousin is an expert in the regulation and legislation of financial institutions, which is a big advantage in our case . And, of course, our developer has excellent experience working with fintech working with fintech companies. He worked on the largest launchpad in Web3, called PolkaStarter.

And I think that's really all. Well, that's a good question for us too, because we're in a difficult position because our users mostly prefer one asset. And that's why we're releasing this product for them. So far, we have only publicly launched the testnet, but we have actually launched it on the mainnet as well. Not in Ethereum, but in Arbitrum, because many of these networks are essentially clones of each other.

And we've gotten really good feedback before. The only concern before. The only concern is security, and therefore it is critical for us to conduct audits and provide special ways to restore access to their non-custodial storage, because our users care about security. There was a recent Coldcard hack incident where weak entropy was found in wallets . So they're very familiar with all of this, and part of our value proposition for them proposition for them is also setting up multi-signature vaults where they can share secrets and customize the authentication process the way they want.

This is important, and we are getting very good feedback, but there is not much of it yet. We are still at a very early stage. Perfectly. That was a great question. And you know, we decided to add a little spice.

We'll just leave the questions and answers at that and answers at that . And that was actually really good because I had a chance to compete a little bit during the question and answer session. So, you know, they're all you know, they're all winners. Everyone here will go home with a big check, but who will get the biggest one? Our judges will decide.

So, judges, let me invite you to scan the QR code, work your magic, and enter your scores into that magical device we have there. My colleague Hang is with us, he is behind. By the way, if you allow me, I'll say that it's a great honor for me to be here. I am very lucky because I am in sight during the event, but it takes months and months of planning, design, selling tickets, selecting all the speakers, topics, ensuring everything is on point, attracting the right delegates, sponsors and partners. And Hang was a real support for me, if I may say so.

I show up at the end and do the easiest part. I'm standing on stage, but so many other people have worked for a long time to make this event a success. And if you don't mind joining me in expressing gratitude to the wonderful Hang at the end of the hall, I don't even know where she is. There she is, over there. Can we give her a big round of applause, please?

This is her kingdom. I'm very, very happy to be a part of it. Thank you. And you know, in the same vein, in the same spirit, I would encourage you to come and meet Hang and the whole team here and the whole team here at the European Blockchain Convention. Chat with Daniel, chat with Victoria, and be sure to put the upcoming events on your calendar, because they get better and better every time I attend them.

And it's a real honor to be involved in this. So, as you can see, our judges are deliberating. They digest and filter all the feedback, all the answers to the questions, all the pitches, and they decide who goes home with a check for 10,000, 20,000, and 40,000. So that's 70,000 euros in grants. And we have three huge checks there, my friend.

And we're going to give them away very soon. Okay, I see Hang is typing. She looks at the portal where the judges add their scores. Listen, if you're a friend or colleague of any of these wonderful people on stage, and if you want to take a picture, we'll actually be handing out three checks; and then everyone will stay on stage, we will have a moment for the paparazzi, and you are all invited to come up and take a picture, please. Especially the professional photographers who make everyone look incredible.

Professional photos are brilliant. So, oh my god . Okay, we have the results. We have big checks. We have trophies of different sizes according to the prize, and we will present them now.

OK. So, is everyone excited? I am excited. Yes, okay. Good.

Thank you again. I'm just...I'm just building up the tension a little bit. Thanks again to Softstack, Generous, Cointelegraph, and Xceleris for your support. We wouldn't have done it without you, and we couldn't have done it without you done it without you .

Thank you very much. Thank you to our amazing judges. Thank you to all our finalists. Just imagine a virtual drum roll as we switch the slide here. A grant of 10,000 euros, which is pretty good for third prize.

Third prize winner is the prize. Third prize winner is the drum part. SatsBridge. Applaud SatsBridge. Yes.

Good. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go. So, fantasy.

Well done. This is a grant for 10,000. Oh, SatsBridge won. Come back, not so fast, friend. Not so fast.

Stand here. Good. These guys have the best photography equipment you've ever seen in your life. They will make you look like a million euros, I promise. Okay, I'll quietly step aside.

This is your moment. Stand there until they are satisfied and lower the cameras. Okay, they will give instructions. Okay, hoo-hoo. A big round of applause for SatsBridge.

Yes. 10,000 euros. Well done Yes. 10,000 euros. Well done , guys.

Bright. OK. Good. SatsBridge wants…it seems…Yes, yes, move a little yes, move a little . That's it, okay.

Oh no, sit down. Sit down. And then…then we'll do 3, 2, 1, everyone will stand up with checks, with trophies, and we'll have a special moment for the paparazzi. Good. Drum beat .

Let me tell you who will win tell you who will win . Jingle. 20,000 euros in grant funds. Thanks to our wonderful sponsors. Well wonderful sponsors.

Well , I'm actually going to reveal the grand prize when I announce the second place winner, but that's okay. We will react in okay. We will react in any case with surprise and admiration. So, the winner of the 20,000 euro grant is Kryptos. Applaud Kryptos.

Yes. Good. Perfectly. What a legend. Thank you.

Yes, yes. Look at this. 20,000. Okay, photographers, tell me where to stand. Yes.

Perfectly. This is your moment. Applaud Kryptos. Yes. Fantasy.

Well, are you satisfied? Photographers are satisfied Photographers are satisfied . If they are satisfied, then I am satisfied. We are all satisfied. That's good.

Good. Listen. I think you are smart people here. You… God, you work with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. You probably already guessed who won.

Can we express our gratitude to Limbic? 40,000 euros goes home with this young man. He will celebrate with his cousin and family, and Muy bien, my friend. Let's applaud. Grant of 40,000 euros.

Yes, yes. Congratulations Limbic. This is absolutely brilliant. Great job. Good.

Just make sure Just make sure …make sure they are happy. Everything is fine. Thumbs up. Good. They are satisfied.

I am happy. So, stand here, my friend. Can you please bring Mr. 20,000 and Mr. 10,000 here.

And you just stand in line here. And can we have one of our judges on each side each side ? Thank you very much. Or just...we'll actually become what these guys tell us to.

Where do you want us to be you want us to be : in the middle or on the side? What is going on here? OK. So, friends, I think this might be a moment for the paparazzi. If you are someone's friend, come forward so you have time to take your photos.

Thank you again to our wonderful sponsors. Can we give a round of applause to our amazing winners? Let's support them. THERE ARE! Thank you very much, European Blockchain Convention.

Thank you to our judges. Thank you to our finalists. Congratulations. Thank you to all the startups who were here. We are true professionals.

Absolutely brilliant. You just tore the hall apart. You are wonderful. Okay, the photographer says: " the photographer says: " Let's go." 3, 2, 1.

"There!" Fantastically. Okay, they're happy, we're happy. So, friends, all I can do is thank everyone on stage. The judges were brilliant, and so were the finalists.

They go home with huge checks. Try explaining this on the subway. This is brilliant. And on the plane, well done . Okay, VIP .

Okay, VIP status. Listen, just a quick reminder: write down the dates. We'll be in New York in November, in London next February. I will be in London. We will have a Digital Assets Forum in Abu Digital Assets Forum in Abu Dhabi in April.

Oh my God . And of course, EBC 2027 in September here in beautiful Barcelona beautiful Barcelona . That's all. And one more thing: I sincerely thank the AV team, photographers, cameramen, lighting engineers—the people who organized it all. A huge thank you to Victoria and Daniel, congratulations on an incredible EBC.

Thanks again to Hang and the whole team for making this possible. See you next time. In the meantime, please don't forget all those logos. Thank you to KuCoin and Visa for sponsoring this stage. Think about sponsors the next time you want to buy something or work for a cool company.

Many thanks to all our sponsors. See you next time. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you, thank you.