Startups gained direct access to capital.
Six Kazakh fintech projects competed for investment, grants and international acceleration opportunities at Fintech Stars Battle 2026 in Almaty, DKNews.kz reports.
SHART RATE emerged as the winner of the pitch competition held on September 11 as part of Central Asia Fintech Summit 2026. The startup secured an opportunity to raise up to $100,000 from White Hill Capital under a SAFE agreement.
Six teams made it to the final from more than 50 applications. Beyond the main investment offer, participants also competed for a 6 million tenge grant and a place in an acceleration program in Dubai.
SHART RATE secures up to $100,000 in investment
The overall winner of Fintech Stars Battle 2026 is developing a digital platform for secure online transactions.
SHART RATE helps individuals and businesses conclude legally binding agreements within minutes and provides mechanisms designed to facilitate swift legal resolution when contractual obligations are breached.
Temir Aden, founder and CEO of SHART RATE, said the funding will be used for more than simply developing the product.
«Our global mission is to build a large-scale ecosystem for fair transactions in which both parties are legally protected. We are already implementing Shart AI, a neural network that automatically generates contracts for any business request. The prize funding will be directed not only toward developing the product and the team, but also toward our main goal — changing the culture of "verbal agreements." We want to encourage society to document obligations transparently, which can help preserve both financial resources and human relationships», Aden said.
For the startup, the investment could become the first stage of a longer-term partnership with the fund.
White Hill Capital saw an investment-ready business
Nargiza An, Chief Investment Officer at White Hill Capital, stressed that the fund approached Fintech Stars Battle as an investment exercise rather than a sponsorship initiative.
«For White Hill Capital, participation in Fintech Stars Battle is not sponsorship but full-fledged investment work: we evaluated the finalists in exactly the same way we would assess any deal in our pipeline. SHART RATE stood out through a combination of a clearly defined market pain point, a working product and a team that has already demonstrated its ability to turn an idea into tangible legal and financial results. Investment of up to $100,000 under a SAFE is only the first step: we will work with the team on the product, unit economics and expansion into new markets across the region. I would also highlight the overall quality of the finalists — half of the projects are already ready to engage with institutional investors, and we will continue discussions with several of them after the summit», An said.
A SAFE allows an investor to provide capital to a startup with the expectation of receiving equity in the future once the conditions specified in the agreement are met. For an early-stage company, the structure makes it possible to raise funding without immediately completing a full priced investment round.
BEHYPE heads to Dubai, BYTRADER receives 6 million tenge
The main investment offer was not the only prize awarded at Fintech Stars Battle.
BEHYPE, led by CEO Aigerim Beisembina, won a place in an acceleration program in Dubai offered by Tumar Innovation Hub.
The startup is developing an influencer marketing platform alongside a fintech card designed for content creators.
BYTRADER, led by CEO Muslim Abdullayev, received a 6 million tenge grant from Yandex Cloud. The company is developing a trading terminal equipped with AI tools and risk-management features.
Three other projects also reached the final:
- PAIDAX — a mobile social investing platform offering access from as little as $1;
- ENKI — a construction verification system that can use confirmation of completed work as a trigger for payment;
- FAQTOR — an AI-native financial platform focused on lending to small and medium-sized businesses.
The range of finalists shows how broadly fintech is now defined. The sector extends beyond banking apps and payments to investment, legal services, construction, SME lending and financial tools for content creators.
Six finalists selected from more than 50 applications
Roughly one in ten applicants reached the final stage of the competition.
Teams had to present their businesses under tight time constraints: each finalist was given four minutes to pitch and another three minutes to answer questions from the jury. The session was moderated by Said Maksimov.
Projects were evaluated across five key criteria:
- problem and market;
- product and technology;
- business model;
- team;
- quality of the pitch.
The jury included Daulet Batyrbek, CEO of Prometei; Ruslan Yensebayev, CEO of technology company bcc-hub; Timur Shalekenov, CEO of Yandex Qazaqstan; Nariman Mukushev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Halyk Bank; Aida Dussova, Director of Almaty Hub; and Dias Mukhamediyev, Deputy CEO of Mycar Group.
The composition of the jury allowed the projects to be assessed simultaneously from the perspectives of technology, banking, investment and their potential for international expansion.
Some projects are already ready for institutional investors
Nariman Mukushev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Halyk Bank, highlighted the maturity of the teams that reached the final.
«Most of the projects presented today are already operating businesses with strong traction, while some are even demonstrating impressive twofold monthly growth. At least one-third of the startups are focused on solving highly relevant market problems, and their teams stand out for their strong preparation and engagement. I am confident that with this approach, these companies have a bright future not only in the local market but also abroad: our technology products have enormous potential for successful scaling and export», Mukushev said.
For Kazakhstan's startup ecosystem, the significance goes beyond the size of the main prize.
If projects are moving from ideas to operating businesses with revenue and proven demand, their financing needs are changing as well. Instead of small early-stage grants, they increasingly require venture capital, partnerships with major financial institutions and access to international markets.
From a competition to real investment
Dias Savetkanov, CEO of Kazakhstan Fintech Network, described direct access to capital and industry expertise as one of the main objectives of Fintech Stars Battle.
«Our key objective within this competition is to give teams direct access to capital and specialized expertise from leading market players. The results of the pitch session demonstrate that the region has strong developers capable of creating financial technologies that are both in demand and secure», Savetkanov said.
The results show how that model can work in practice: one team received an investment offer, another secured international acceleration, and a third received a cloud technology grant.
White Hill Capital also intends to continue discussions with several other finalists. As a result, the eventual investment impact of Fintech Stars Battle could extend beyond the $100,000 announced on stage.
Fintech Stars Battle is part of a broader transformation
The pitch session was held as part of Central Asia Fintech Summit 2026, which brought together more than 4,000 representatives of the financial and technology sectors in Almaty on September 11.
The same summit also presented developments extending far beyond the startup ecosystem: a new architecture for Kazakhstan's payments market, Category 1 payment organizations, expansion of the digital tenge and the National Antifraud Center, digital asset projects, and plans to integrate the national QR payment systems of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
We previously examined these developments in “Kazakhstan Reshapes Its Payments Market: What Was Announced at Fintech Summit,” which covered the key CAFS 2026 announcements on the country's new financial architecture, Category 1 payment organizations, the digital tenge and cross-border payments.
