Kazakhstani FinTech startups received investments and grants at Fintech Stars Battle

As part of the Central Asia Fintech Summit 2026 at the Center for Contemporary Culture “Tselinny,” the results of Fintech Stars Battle were announced — a pitch session where fintech startups from Kazakhstan presented their projects to investors, banks, technology companies, and international experts.

The main winner of Fintech Stars Battle 2026 was the SHART RATE project, which received an investment of $100,000 from White Hill Capital under a SAFE agreement. The startup is developing a digital platform for secure online transactions. The service helps individuals and businesses legally binding contracts in minutes and quickly obtain a court decision in case of breach of terms.

Other finalists also received prizes from partners. BEHYPE, which develops an influencer marketing platform and a fintech card for bloggers, received participation in an acceleration program in Dubai from Tumar Innovation Hub. The CEO of the project is Aigerim Beisembina.

BYTRADER, presenting a trading terminal with AI tools and a risk management system, received a grant of 6 million tenge from Yandex Cloud. The CEO of the project is Muslim Abdullaev.

Other finalists included PAIDAX — a mobile social investing platform with access starting from $1, ENKI — a construction verification system as a payment trigger, and FAQTOR — an AI-native financial platform for lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

At White Hill Capital, it was noted that they viewed participation in Fintech Stars Battle as full-fledged investment work. According to the company’s Chief Investment Officer Nargiza An, SHART RATE stood out due to the combination of a clear market problem, a working product, and a team that has already demonstrated the ability to bring ideas to legal and financial results.

Six startups made it to the final, selected from more than 50 applications. Each participant had four minutes to present their project and another three minutes for questions from the jury. The moderator of the pitch session was Said Maksimov.

The jury evaluated the projects based on five criteria: problem and market, product and technology, business model, team, and pitch quality.

The jury included:
— Daulat Batyrbek, CEO Prometei
— Ruslan Enseyev, CEO of the technology company bcc-hub, a subsidiary of Bank CenterCredit
— Timur Shalekenov, CEO of Yandex Qazaqstan
— Nariman Mukushev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Halyk Bank, overseeing the digital direction
— Aida Dussova, Director of Almaty Hub
— Diass Mukhamediev, Deputy CEO of Mycar Group, responsible for digital products of the ecosystem.

Fintech Stars Battle became part of the business program of CAFS 2026, which annually brings together leaders of banks, FinTech companies, government agencies, and experts from Kazakhstan’s financial market.