Rapyd co-founders Arkady Karpman (right), Arik Shtilman, and Omer Priel (left). (Company PR pic)
If you are a developer and want a chance to go into space, Rapyd, an Israeli fintech startup and the most valuable unicorn in history, is giving you the chance. The company has started a new program in which lucky people will be selected to go up into space. Its Hack the Galaxy challenge will offer a series of virtual challenges for developers who could win tickets for free space rides.
The new challenge had none other than Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner promote its launch. Contestants need to join a Rapyd developer community and solve a challenge to win. There will be a total of 42 challenges offered throughout the summer.
Shatner recently went up into space himself with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. And so have a lot of people as Bezos, along with rival Elon Musk and others, are developing private space travel that they hope will one day lead to a chance for the masses to get to travel to the moon.
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“Win one of three tickets on a Space Perspective space flight or $130,000 cash, plus a galaxy of other prizes.”
The big prize will be riding on Spaceship Neptune, which is the first carbon-neutral way to space. The ship uses SpaceBalloon—a technology used for decades by the likes of NASA. It takes people on a leisurely flight, spending hours at the edge of space.
Other prizes include a William Shatner signed meteorite, a NASA bomber jacket as well as cash.
Founded in 2016, Rapyd boats that it does for fintech what the cloud did for IT. The company says that its Global Payments Network connects a company to “all the ways the world likes to pay and the infrastructure to create your own fintech solutions, like ewallets, cards and financial services. With Rapyd, digital sellers in Latin America can accept cash.” Online shoppers in Asia can pay with their favorite ewallet. Businesses can make payouts to companies and individuals anywhere in the world. With 900+ payment methods in 100 countries, clients can open new markets, reach new customers, and create new opportunities anywhere.
In March, Rapyd hit a $15 billion valuation.
William Shatner said in a promotional video, “Having been to space myself, I can’t express how incredible an opportunity this is for software developers all over the world. It’s an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’m excited to partner with Rapyd to spread the word to the developers worldwide to join the Rapyd Developer Community and complete the puzzles for a chance to win a trip to the edge of space!”
“Developers are the dreamers and doers of fintech innovation – at Rapyd, we’re on a quest to attract accomplished talent to welcome to our community,” said Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd. “Millions of developers around the world are reimagining financial services bringing together new ideas and innovation to solve the problem of how businesses and consumers pay and want to be paid in markets across the planet. By launching this world-first contest, we are not only able to find and crown the greatest fintech developer on Planet Earth and beyond but also create a place for like-minded thinkers across the globe who are hungry to connect and share ideas.”
