Banco Santander and Oxentia Foundation are inviting startups and scaleups from 11 countries to compete in a blockchain challenge and the chance to win cash prizes.
Firms are being invited to enter ideas addressing issues such as improving user privacy and security in blockchain networks, boosting DeFi and tokenisation, and enhancing and expanding digital interactions with users through concepts such as Web3 and the metaverse.
The challenge is open to companies from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the US, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Poland, the UK and Uruguay.
Interested players have until 9 June to apply, after which a panel of experts will pick 20 finalists to take part in a pitch day at which three winning startups will receive €10,000 each and three winning scaleups will get €30,000 each.
Firms will also get access to Santander X 100, the bank’s community of start-ups, which connects them to advice and training, capital, customers, talent and networking.
Coty de Monteverde, head, crypto and blockchain centre of excellence, Banco Santander, says: “There is still a long way to go before blockchain is definitively installed in the daily life of people and companies, and at Santander Universities we want to give visibility and help startups and scaleups with innovative solutions in the use of this technology.”
