SHAKA Festival 2026: The Startup Challenge that Puts Founders Face to Face with Investors

In Biarritz, the stage of the SHAKA Festival is not reserved for headliners. From September 24 to 26, 2026, the SHAKA Startup Challenge gives selected young startups a few minutes to convince, live, an audience where investors sit in the front row. For a founder, crypto or not, this might be the real reason to make the trip. Cointribune is a partner of the edition, with a discount code included.

👉 With code WELOVECOINT, enjoy −20% on your 3-day ticket, reserve your spot here.

A pitch contest, not just a panel discussion

Many tech events put startups on stage for the photo. The SHAKA Startup Challenge aims for something else: putting project leaders in a real raising situation, facing people who write checks. We briefly mentioned this Challenge in our event overview; it deserves more attention because it is the point where the festival’s “relaxed” format turns into a concrete opportunity.

The mechanism remains classic in its principle (selection beforehand, limited speaking time, interaction with the audience), but it takes on a unique flavor in the setting of the Cité de l’Océan. The selection details and the 2026 jury have not yet been publicly announced; interested founders should therefore monitor the organizer’s announcements in the coming weeks. What is certain is access: a festival ticket opens the entire program, including the Challenge.

Who is in the room: the investor profile that makes the pitch valuable

A pitch is only as good as the audience it targets. SHAKA precisely aggregates the type of interlocutors a founder wants to meet. Among confirmed speakers and partners: Sylvain Theveniaud, who leads the Allianz Accelerator, Hervé Bloch, president of Le Fund, Francis Lelong, serial entrepreneur with multiple ventures and now head of Alegria Groupe, and Rachel Delacour, CEO of Sweep. On the institutional side, the presence of BPI France anchors the public innovation financing ecosystem.

For a Web3 project, the interest is twofold. On one side, the partners village includes Binance, Crypto.com, Polkadot, Solana, and the CES Web3 Tokenization Village: the crypto infrastructure is physically present. On the other, pitching before generalist funds forces one to leave jargon aside and defend a use case, an often salutary exercise for teams used to speaking only to native crypto investors. A usage note: the platforms present are sponsors or exhibitors, without this implying recommendation, and some of their services remain subject to restrictions depending on jurisdiction.

How much it costs, and what the code changes

Access is via a single ticket valid for all three days, including meals, drinks, sports activities, and evening events. Ticketing progresses in steps: the Early Bird at €120 is sold out, the Regular rate at €190 is currently available, and a final Last Wave at €240 is announced. In other words, each week of waiting brings you closer to the highest price.

With code WELOVECOINT, a −20% discount applies to the current rate, i.e., €152 instead of €190 today. The code is capped at a partner quota of 100 tickets and stops as soon as this threshold is reached or the event closes. For a founder pitching (or simply scouting the right funds before raising), it is an entry ticket to compare with the cost of a standard investor meeting.

The remaining question any team asks before booking three days: does a pitch contest by the ocean really open doors that an emailed deck would not? The answer depends less on the format than on follow-ups after the festival. To measure it, we will have to see, by the end of the year, how many projects that went through the Biarritz stage have turned their shot into a success. This is also what we reported on SHAKA’s “anti-conference” format: the real indicator is the deals signed afterward, not the atmosphere on site.

👉 Reserve your SHAKA Festival Biarritz 2026 ticket and enter code WELOVECOINT at payment for −20%. Offer subject to partner quota availability (100 tickets).