The awards ceremony can be watched via the metaverse and streaming at this link.

The six winners of the Santander X Global Challenge | Blockchain and Beyond will get 120,000 euros in prizes, plus membership to Santander X 100, an exclusive, global entrepreneurship community made up of top Santander X projects.

Madrid, 07 July 2022.
The Santander X Global Challenge | Blockchain and Beyond, launched by Banco Santander (through Santander X) and Oxentia Foundation, has announced its 20 finalists: 10 start-ups and 10 scale-ups selected among 400 entries from 11 countries. 

The six winners will be revealed on Monday, 14 July, once all projects have been reviewed by a jury of international experts in entrepreneurship and innovation from Santander and other institutions. The awards ceremony can be watched via the metaverse (Decentraland) and livestreaming at this link. 

This will be Banco Santander’s début in a virtual, blockchain-based space such as Decentraland, giving it the chance to test out and learn more about what such platforms have to offer.

The best projects

The 20 finalists (click here to find out more about their projects) stood out for their solutions to boost productivity and employment while solving important societal problems in challenges to reinforce user privacy and security in blockchain networks, promote decentralized finance (“DeFi”; i.e. without financial intermediaries) and tokenization, and boost online engagement with users through Web3 and the metaverse.

Start-up Category finalists were: Salus - Governance of Health Data (Spain), a co-op that helps citizens share their medical data for research purposes; Finteum (UK), an interbank treasury platform for swaps and repos; Prosperas (US), which enables lenders to qualify neglected people for credit; Heimdall Technologies (Argentina), which uses blockchain technology to track environmental regeneration; Agrotoken (Argentina), the first company to create stable currency backed by agro-commodities; Biztribution (Spain), which uses blockchain technology to revolutionize air travel retailing; Rastra (Brazil), which tracks supply chains and creates consumer data NFTs in the form of a digital passport; Win (Spain), a platform for smart, blockchain-backed investment in the sports industry; SharpShark (Chile), which uses blockchain technology to manage intellectual property; and Proofmarked ltd (UK), which “bootstraps trust and legitimacy to the web”.

Scale-up finalists are: nChain UK (UK), which helps central banks issue digital currency for citizens to use in retail payments; Xcapit (Argentina), a self-custodial, open-code wallet to invest in DeFi products; Validated ID (Spain), which works with decentralized digital IDs; Zumo Enterprise (UK) — smart digital assets for fintechs and banks; Origino (Argentina), which uses tokenization to track supply chains. KornChain Limited (UK), a programmable digital currency that enhances next-generation payment platforms; Valora (US), a crypto wallet for global payments and decentralized finance apps; Almond Fintech (US), an international fund transfer company that uses blockchain to facilitate cross-border payments; W2 Global Data Solutions (UK), which performs identity and age verification to be shared among merchants anonymously; and  WishKnish Corp (US), accounting technology platform with solutions for e-commerce, supply chains and communications.

EUR 120,000 in prizes will be distributed among the six winning projects: EUR 30,000 for the three winning start-ups (EUR 10,000 to each one) and EUR 90,000 for the three winning scale-ups (EUR 30,000 to each one). Winners will also gain membership to Santander X 100, an exclusive and global entrepreneurship community for top Santander X projects that connects them with the resources they need to grow, such as advice and training, capital, clients, talent and networking.

Banco Santander and its support for higher education

Banco Santander is firmly committed to progress and inclusive sustainable growth. Through Santander Universities, it has been a pioneering stalwart of education, entrepreneurship and employment for 25 years, standing out among the world's financial institutions. So far, Santander has helped some 790,000 students, professionals, start-ups and SMEs with over 2.1 billion euros and partnerships with more than 1,000 universities in 15 countries.

Oxentia Foundation and its commitment to innovation and global entrepreneurship

The Oxentia Foundation was created to support Oxentia’s goal to address global inequalities through innovation and entrepreneurship. Globally, Oxentia has designed, developed and run awards, competitions and programmes supporting early-stage innovators and entrepreneurs to promote the commercialization of science and technology based-innovation projects that impact the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Oxentia was born out of the University of Oxford’s technology transfer company, Oxford University Innovation, with the aim of delivering specialist innovation management services to public and private sector clients worldwide. Its approach is backed by Oxford University’s 30-plus years’ experience supporting academic innovation and entrepreneurship in over 70 countries.