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⛵️ Zebec Acquires Science Card 🇬🇧
Recorded: May 29, 2025 Duration: 0:28:28Space Recording
Short Summary
Zebek Network's acquisition of Science Card UK opens new avenues in the education sector, targeting the $800 billion tuition payments market with innovative financial solutions. This partnership aims to enhance crypto adoption among students, streamline funding for research, and introduce flexible payment options, positioning both companies for significant growth in the evolving landscape of digital finance.
Full Transcription
Thank you. . Thank you. what up what up guys happy uh thursday uh it's been a eventful day that's for sure so shout out
everybody for joining uh in the middle of the day here in uh eastern time and uh i guess later in the afternoon in
the uk ben what up simon what up jj let's go how you doing man it's uh it's going well how are you
sir very well simon you good would not be better i mean we've been we've been working on this
exciting acquisition for months now and today is finally the day that it's all come to fruition.
Absolutely love it. Yeah, I've just posted at the top.
So before we get into things, just very quickly, everyone, if you haven't seen already, I very much suggest that you click on the link in the Jumbotron at the top there.
Bookmark it. Come back to it later, but Zebek Network has acquired Science Card UK, and we're here to talk about that today and what that means for the ecosystem.
We're here to learn a little bit about what Science Card is, who the team are behind that, and also a little bit more about what's led to that acquisition and how that's working out.
So really, really exciting. Let's just do a quick mic check for Science Card. Hey, is that Daniel behind the Science Card account?
Hi, everybody. Yes, here's Daniel.
Greetings from London.
Nice one. Great to meet you and see you and hear from you.
And congratulations to you also. It's quite a day.
It's very exciting. Look, look we made the civic a while ago
now and simon and i we we had so many we had fantastic conversations and uh it just gets
better by the day the creativity is high so it's very it's great great stuff amazing and we've also
got john who's your co-founder at science Card. Hi, John. Just bring yourself off mute and say hello. Let's check your mic.
Yes. Hi. Hi. Can you hear me?
Yes, we hear you fine. How are you, sir?
I'm great. I'm great. Absolutely delighted to be here.
Yeah, it's fantastic news. Amazing outcome. Great team. You know, kindred spirits working together. Can't wait to get this off the ground yes absolutely well we're uh we're thrilled
to host this one today i'm gonna kick us off we're we're two minutes in but we've got a shorter space
today obviously anyone who's coming to this uh a little bit later this is gonna it's a recorded
space so uh you can share it with your friends you can listen back you can let your groups and your
your people know because this is a really really exciting one to to listen to throughout um simon i'm going to kick us off
unless there's anything you want to touch on before we get going please do all yours ben love it right
well look welcome everyone to uh another zebek spaces um a special special edition off the back of that news today that Zebek has in fact
acquired Science Card. We're going to learn all about that in a moment. You've just heard from
some of the teams, so it'll be myself moderating the conversation. Simon, obviously you all know
as the CEO at Zebek Network. Also, we've got Science Card account. And behind that is Daniel, one of the co-founders
of Science Card and also John, the other co-founder of Science Card. Really, really exciting stuff.
We're here to break down this latest acquisition of Science Card, what it means to the future of
mission-driven finance. There's an awful lot that goes behind this one. And we're really,
really exciting to kick things off. So look, before we get going, I'm going to bring Simon in.
Simon, what is Science Card? Why did Zebek acquire them? What made this the right next move
in this incredible narrative that we're watching play out before our own eyes?
in this incredible narrative that we're watching play out before our own eyes?
Well, as I said earlier, we are incredibly excited to be partnering with Daniel and John.
Us at Zabak, we've been watching their moves now for the past year.
We've been in conversations with them for the past few months.
It's truly an honor to have them now part of the family and as part of the team.
We are super impressed with what Science Card has built over
the past few years. They have a portfolio of the top universities in the UK and their mission-driven
finance program is a perfect fit with Zbeck's own mission to build real-time and inclusive
financial infrastructure for the world. So this acquisition, again, one of many for Zbeck, as you
know, we're a very acquisitive company, has helped bolster our growing real world user base.
And it marks our first foray into the education vertical, which is a priority area for our growth in 2025, as we seek to expand from payroll and card payments into the $800 billion global tuition payments market.
into the $800 billion global tuition payments market.
So this marks the beginning of Zbeck's footprint in education,
and we know it's going to grow significantly from here.
Also, we're very impressed with the product market fit
that Science Card has found over the years,
and their attraction with top schools in the UK
has really made it a standout target.
So as I said, after many months of discussion,
we have finally made it official today. target. So as I said, after many months of discussion, we have finally made
it official today. Amazing. Absolutely love that. And as you say, a really interesting product market
fit. I'm super excited to jump on that. Daniel, if it's okay, I'm going to bring you in now.
I guess before we get into more of the information around this acquisition, let's just talk a
little bit about what inspired the creation of Science Card and what problems you've been
solving via this product and platform that you've been building.
Yes, absolutely.
The core idea was to bring research closer to finance so we can finance more research.
Because, look, we need much more money in the world to cure cancer.
We need much more to do to create cleaner air, better water quality, secure, ensure food security and things like that.
And these are all things that are needed to endure.
Our family lives longer our parents
parents live longer um the life we all deserve right and to do that we thought we need to bring
the financial ecosystem closer to r d and if they're closer together funds can flow much
easier into science and that's that's the challenge we have been addressing and working on towards
off and we make great progress and i believe with sebeg we can it's the best place to amplify that
the crypto ecosystem of stable coins and things like that it's just fantastic what
real impact we could do in that space when we bring it together
amazing and uh i think it think it's really exciting,
the product and the platform that you've built.
Simon, maybe you want to just touch on that a little bit more
and maybe just to the tune of like,
what about those things and that product market fit
really stood out to the Zebek network?
One of the reasons why we zeroed in our efforts
on the education sector over these
past few months is because crypto adoption is highest amongst students and amongst the under
30 age category. That demographic is a key target for us. And it's a perfect fit with Zbeck's
strengths in crypto payments and, of course, Sablecoin back cards. So we are planning to roll out a number of ZEBEC products
across the users of Science Card.
We'll be introducing discounts on school payments and expenses
if using a ZEBEC-branded university card,
as well as on the longer-term roadmap,
so think about in the next six months,
we'll be introducing streaming payments for tuition at these schools,
as well as potentially handling the payroll for the faculty at these institutions.
Yeah, and we're going to jump into a few more bits about that in a moment as well. I know that
I'm really interested to hear about some of that stuff about like streaming and those other things
really like it's a fascinating product and obviously obviously a really exciting market who are super crypto native.
I can't wait to delve in a little bit more.
I guess I'm going to come back to the science card team with the next one, which is, you know, you guys, you've served some of the UK's most prestigious institutions by being a a a university-led product like what's
the core use case that you think you've come up with that really resonated with
those institutions and those long-standing you're well yeah
institutions in the UK happy to pick this one up Daniel. Yeah absolutely I mean look from a science card
point of view we've been privileged then to support some of the UK's top institutions right
with their R&D efforts in primarily healthcare projects, climate science projects and quantum
computation projects right this is the future. Now, some of the universities
that we've partnered with include Aston University, the University of Cambridge, you know, amongst
many others. Now, the core use case that you mentioned that resonates most with these,
not only research intensive universities, the bigger names, but also the teaching intensive
universities as well, is our ability to de-risk the funding
of early stage research.
You know, I don't think you need to have too much
of a vivid imagination to appreciate
that traditional scientific
or governmental budgeting committees
often overlook blue sky, early stage research,
especially in the UK, due to its speculative nature right so we essentially
address this gap by providing a platform that supports these critical initial phases
essentially which can really boost innovation in research in the longer term so that's the
main thing now I think it's just worth mentioning here that with a lot of the universities we've
also discussed you know the the opportunity to offer a
planned fractional revenue share model facilitated through smart contracts. And, you know, that's
where Zabek comes in as well. You know, we found great alignment in that case, because
using these smart contracts, we can offer transparent and efficient ways to manage funds
and also commercialization revenue.
So, you know, this type of model, you know, ensures that researchers and institutions can easily distribute grants, stipends, bursaries, you know, fostering an environment of innovation
and collaboration, which is what we really want.
A hundred percent.
I love that.
And just like, you know, you've obviously, as Simon and Daniel have said a little bit earlier on, you've been talking for a few months now.
This has been in the works. Do you think your university clients will be excited by the prospect of Zebeck streaming payments technology, for example, in terms of like how that works with, you know, with tuition fees?
of like how that works with uh with you know with tuition fees very um yeah i like a quick
so yes very excited um look for for universities um innovation is is their business it attracts
students it attracts top business and i think it's time now that universities also come into the
forefront of innovation in financial products, fintech and so on and any
university who takes a step forward now and integrates the most modern
technology will only attract more talent, better talent. So they want that,
there's so much to be done.
Some systems are still old.
And yeah, when we talk to them and show them the possibilities,
everything is very, very exciting from their end.
Yeah.
I mean, just building on what Daniel said there,
you know, just the streaming payments technology
offered by ZBEC, you know,
potentially for tuition, this is amazing
because, you know, this tech can significantly enhance affordability for students, you know, by allowing the tuition
fee payments to be streamed over longer periods of time, right, a semester beyond, rather than the
usual lump sum payments at the beginning or, you know, at the middle, basically, of a degree. So,
you know, what this tech allows us to do is make education more accessible
because it aligns more closely with the revenue patterns of students and their families
so this is you know a huge huge deal and you know speaking hypothetically as an example you know
we've collaborated with aston university and other universities and you could just imagine a scenario
where any university is
competing for international students now. It's more cutthroat than ever. And, you know,
through this technology, we can offer flexible payment options. We can offer discounts. We can
offer installment plans, which can really be a decisive factor in attracting students, right?
So streaming payments can make a huge difference in the
university's ability to enroll and retain students. And ultimately, down the line,
this creates a more diverse and dynamic student body, right? And this is just great for everybody.
Yeah, it's absolutely fantastic. I've got, I guess I've been sat here thinking about
some of the other opportunities that there might be with universities and such like a crypto native audience.
And, you know, with so like statistics here, like there are so many people, young people that fall into this demographic that you guys are going to be working with.
I mean, do you think that universities in time might be interested in things like issuing their own stable coin for payments and things like that?
Daniel, maybe I'll ask you that first. And Simon, I'd also love to get your view on that.
Yeah, please. So look, there's in the UK, you have three million students that do tuition fee payment.
It's a big volume domestically, a big volume from abroad.
And it could be interesting for a for university issue their own stable coin um they use it on the campus as a payment reward system
maybe they just could switch to to the the established one it would give them a lot of
benefits absolutely um and uh yeah maybe simon wants to expand on that a bit further as well with the
more detailed numbers well for us it's the back the the most interesting part of the tuition payments
are from international students so in the uk alone you're looking at around 11 billion pounds
so 15 million us in annual volume just of international payments since there's such a high percentage of
international students. Now of that flow, over 200 million pounds are going alone just to FX fees.
That's not including bank fees, transfer fees, etc. So using stablecoins through Zbex network
would eliminate these fees and allow payments to be streamed in real time for students and at whatever
increment is agreed with the university while raising R&D funding for crucial research at zero
effort. So for us, it's really a no brainer to bring our technology into this vertical,
given the friction and given the high fees that currently exist for students.
That is insane numbers, like close to 11.
And that's just the UK, by the way. Think about the global market, right? Right. It's going to be multiples of insane numbers. Like close to 11. And that's just the UK, by the way.
Think about the global market, right?
Right.
It's going to be multiples of these numbers.
I mean, that's wild.
And I'm going to, I want to tag on here.
And Daniel, John, I'd love to get your view on this.
Like one of the really exciting things that stands out from Science Card here,
having seen this press release a bit earlier and done a little bit of research,
is this de-sci angle. card here having seen this press release a bit earlier and done a little bit of research is
this dsai angle i love that decentralized science like explain a little bit how science card users
will be able to like give me some of the nuts and bolts in terms of how they can support
live research directly Sure, let me get started. So, I mean, DSAI is a fantastic space and DSAI is decentralizing
science. It's very broad. You can see web tree data sharing, distributed consensus on publication,
replication, funding, and everything is more open and transparent,
which is very important sometimes in research. It's the problem that some
very important finding of certain research never could be replicated, which makes things,
people question if they were actually real. So the web DSi can add credibility. And so it's very,
credibility and so it's very very exciting space so one of the stand-up features yes so science
card is very committed to this side because we are enabling a distribute so we are opening up
for everybody to contribute to science project which science project should be funded and participated, while currently a very small percentage decides
who gets funded, what gets done,
and we believe that if that's open for more people
to contribute and have a say,
we might discover many different things.
But yeah, over to John to add.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's great.
Just to pitch in here, I think, you know,
one of the things that we've tried to do is, you know, position ScienceC, you know, they get sponsored through a miles, what's known as a milestone driven format, right?
This is very prevalent in healthcare, and it's really successful way of doing good science, because we allow, essentially, the public to fund against very visible and tangible milestones. So, you know,
this makes the whole process much more effective and it also de-risks the projects, not only for
the scientists, right, but importantly for those high net worth individuals, investors that would
also want to participate in the science in the form of its intellectual property, right?
So, you know, getting that de-sign goal right has allowed us to create a really transparent
and fertile ecosystem at Science Card.
So every contribution that is made through the Science Card platform is essentially tracked
and its impact is, you know, it's visible to the public.
And this transparency can only be done with having a de-sized structure in mind, right, which fosters trust and encourages much, much more people essentially to participate in a scientific advancement.
So it's really revolutionary. We, you know, we're trying to democratize science, science and funding and, you know, make it much much more you make research much more accountable and
accessible to the to the wider public this is the core thrust of what we wanted to do.
I love that Simon that must have been such an appealing uh you know angle here for you guys to
take obviously you know you guys are uh absorbed in the DeFi space you've been looking at all kinds of payment and financial
solutions this is like another string to the bow talk to me about how you see DeSci and that whole
vision expanding under Zebek's infrastructure. Exactly that I mean DeSci is yet another example
of real-world adoption of our programmable money infrastructure.
And real-world adoption, as you know, is core to all Zbeck products. They're all built around a use case and solving a real-world problem. So our streaming technology allows for direct
and verifiable flows to researchers, which makes R&D much more transparent, easier to fund,
and easier to track, particularly when you bring it
back to the milestone-based payments that John was speaking about earlier. Now, taking this into
the world of stablecoins, of course, accepting stablecoin-based grants for R&D opens you up
to a global group of donors. No matter where you are in the world, funding is as easy as clicking send on a transaction versus before many universities were stuck with local or government
based funding models. So we envision this transformation acting as a multiplier effect
to the university budgets that are allocated towards R&D. And of course, that means the
means the advancement of humanity and all of the great things that science can bring.
advancement of humanity and all of the great things that science can bring.
Yes guys this is uh this is really really exciting stuff I I'm um I'm kind of blown away really by
what this edition means and also the kind of the the size of the prize when you think about
uh the exposure that you guys have currently had to universities
and the help that you would have been able to give in terms of research and those things and
how big those markets and those user groups and those opportunities are. It's a massive play.
I congratulate you all on getting it over the line i think it's incredible
i think you know we said this was going to be a quick one to to do and wrap so maybe just some
final points i'd love to um well first of all thank you simon daniel john for your insights
it's been amazing are there any additional points you want to drop in uh just in terms of how people
can learn a bit more about
what you're doing, how people can participate, what they can go do some more research to
understand. Let's have a little final thought from each of you. I'll start with Simon.
Absolutely. Well, this acquisition really marks our first foray into the UK market. Of course,
we have a lot of customers in the UK market, but this is us acquiring the UK market. Of course, we have a lot of customers in the UK
market, but this is us acquiring a UK company. Of course, I spend a lot of time myself in the UK,
so this is home to me. And the UK has positioned itself as a hub for financial innovation over
many, many decades. And it's increasingly positioning itself as a hub for digital
asset regulation, particularly around stablecoin. We're seeing a lot of great progress from the UK in that department, similar to how we are seeing it in
the US. And now ZBEC can operate in education, payroll, DeFi, real world spending, all with
regulatory alignment in the UK. And of course, we're very excited to have Daniel and John lead
our education vertical at ZBEC. And we are expecting to be making
announcements with many of the universities in the Science Card Network over the coming weeks.
So stay tuned for that. And I'm sure there'll be additional spaces where we'll dive deeper into
specific use cases with specific schools. Amazing. Thank you, Daniel, John, I'll let you guys
fight over who wants to go first, but I'd love to just get some final thoughts from you.
And also, I would urge everyone in the audience, just give Science Card a follow, because of course there will be updates from the ZBEC network, but they will also follow from Science Card as well.
Go for it, guys.
Just final thought.
Yeah, please follow our journey moving forward.
There will be very exciting news coming in the next month
of partnerships with universities
and the adoption could be very, very fast and exciting.
So follow us.
No, thank you.
Just a final thought from me.
It's fantastic, essentially, to reach the culmination, essentially, for this journey with ZBEC.
You know, it's been a while in the making. We're really glad we made it through.
You know, like Simon, like Daniel has mentioned, you know, we are going to be announcing some of the great work that we've been looking at behind the scenes with respect to university partnerships.
looking at behind the scenes with respect to university partnerships.
And this is just essentially going to extend the footprint of ZBEC
within the educational and higher education sector
and make use of essentially of the great products
that are going to be on offer,
including some of the already pre-existing offerings as well of ZBEC,
such as ZBEC Vaults as well.
So we are talking to the universities on treasury
management systems and payroll services and a few other products as well so expect a lot of
announcements along the way. Fantastic look I want to thank you guys for giving up your time I know
it's a busy day for you all I also want to just just give a little shout out to the audience for
coming up and joining us at quite short notice.
Obviously, an incredible press release today.
And then to be able to drop a spaces and have so many of you join us, really, really grateful for that.
As you all know, I've been supporting Zebek and Simon for a few weeks now in terms of moderating these spaces.
I think we were going at a fortnightly cadence before.
Simon, we're going to start doing it a bit more frequently, right?
Absolutely.
One space is a week.
So there's a lot of great news in the forecast for us at Zabak.
So no better way to sharing it with our community than on the spaces.
So Ben, thank you as always for hosting.
Love it.
John, Daniel, it's an honor to have you as part of the Zabak family.
And we're super excited for this journey ahead of us. Amazing.
Thank you, likewise.
This was amazing.
Thank you everybody for joining.
Thanks guys.
Remember this is a recorded space
so you can go back and listen to it later on
or share it with people who you think need to know.
JJ, I think we're all good, my guy.
Thanks so much for hosting this one.
As always, all you and Simon,
shout out to the Science Card team
and everybody that joined in the middle of the day.
So appreciate the time
and we'll catch you on the next one, guys.
See you all soon, everyone.
Thanks so much.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
