Clash of Startups 2.0: The Hottest Battle in Fintech!

Interesting, unconventional, informal: under this banner, Activat VC held a high-profile event that brought together the sharks of Kazakhstan's fintech. Leading banks and venture investors evaluated fintech startups at Clash of Startups 2.0. The startups walked away not only with valuable feedback from top venture market players and powerful networking, but also with the icing on the cake: prizes. SmArt.Point, as an event partner, provided a comfortable venue, while ER10 Media provided media support (and more!).

Activat VC Executive Director Meirzhan Yessimkhanov named the "red flags" in pitching: missing data that matters to investors, such as market size and traction.

— We look at manners: the pitch should be polished and engaging, the co-founder shouldn't turn their back on the audience or read out the entire presentation. It's also important that the founder doesn't falter after being asked a question. That means there's something they don't know about their own startup — the investor added.

Meirzhan stressed that many startups are held back by their fixation on local and neighboring markets: "To become a unicorn, you have to build a big and compelling story. Unfortunately, the Kazakhstan market is small."

Fortunately, Clash of Startups turned out to be a treasure trove of "green flags" and big ambitions: 11 startups presented their ideas across various FinTech segments, from cybersecurity and AI to customer service and logistics. They build solutions for the National Bank and work with clients from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the UK, the US, and the UAE. They build large ecosystems without outside investment and restructure loans. It's easy to imagine how tough the battle for the top spots was. Still, the winners were chosen. The jury included:

• Valery Yevlovskikh – startup consultant and COO of Grayver Law Group, a US law firm that works with startups and investors.
• Dias Kivenov, BCC – Advisor to the Chairman of the Management Board of Bank CenterCredit on the development of the mobile app's IT infrastructure.
• Zhan Karsybayev – Co-founder and Managing Partner of Big Sky Capital, Board member at Hero Journey, Pippin Title, KeyCaliber, and HBS Alumni Angels.
• Murat Abdrakhmanov – Venture investor (over 40 projects in his portfolio) and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience. Founder of ASTEL JSC, one of the largest telecom companies in Kazakhstan, as well as the Dent-Lux and Ambassador clinic chains.
• Aldiyar Isakov – Investment Director at TESS CBA DMCC Private Equity Fund
• Pavel Koktyshev – Entrepreneur and venture investor, Managing Partner of Most Ventures. One of the key architects of Kazakhstan's innovation ecosystem. Author of the Startup School KZ course, former Deputy Chairman of the Board of AIFC.
• Sardor Allanazarov – Venture Analyst at Aloqa Ventures

These jury members chose the winners:

• 3rd place – tickets to CEVF. QazTracker – a startup that turned an idea into a working financial and insurance tool.
• 2nd place – advertising placement on ER10 Media worth 500,000 tenge. Imediator – a startup that has helped citizens of Kazakhstan restructure loans totaling over 300,000,000 tenge

— We spent a very long time discussing who would take first place; it was a tough debate. We had two favorites and kept thinking about how to make sure justice prevailed. But then Murat Abdrakhmanov said: let's award a second first place. So one million is provided by Activat VC, and the other by Murat Abdrakhmanov — announced Meirzhan Yessimkhanov.

— Today was a wonderful battle, and I was impressed by the quality of the projects. They were all very strong, and the jury faced an incredibly difficult task. There were no weak projects at all. And when we started comparing the best with the best (which is very hard), the jury decided to award two first places — added venture investor Murat Abdrakhmanov, before announcing the first-place winners.

First place at Clash of Startups 2.0, along with one million tenge each, went to:

• baraiq — a startup founded by a serial IT entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in the financial industry, who conceived and developed the Anti-Fraud Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
• KOZ AI — a startup that, without outside investment, has built an ecosystem of digital solutions for business and delivered 20+ projects for Kazakhstan's largest holding companies and for companies in the UK.

Congratulations to the winners! After the awards ceremony, the informal part of the evening began: to pleasant music, founders, investors, and fintech representatives mingled, shared experience, and laid the groundwork for future collaboration.

See the photo report at this link.

Source: https://er10.kz/read/analitika/clash-of-startups-2-0-samaja-zharkaja-bitva-v-fintehe/