At the final round of the international Get in the Ring competition on Friday, EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush made his entrance with Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” playing in the background.

That evening Rush went head-to-head with startups from around the world and proved he could handle the “thrill of the fight” as the Kansas City biometrics company—it replaces passwords with eye print verification—was crowned winner of the international competition. 

“The pain of passwords is universal and our product delivers the one-two punch in that we are secure and convenient,” Rush told Silicon Prairie News. “Our scalability and IP protection both resonated well.”

EyeVerify competed against seven companies from around the world with the chance to secure more than €1 million—about $1.4 million—in angel investments. While a number of investors stepped forward following the competition, EyeVerify said funding arrangements are still being worked out. Ultimately, the winner was chosen by the 600-member audience, which included more than 120 investors and 300 fellow entrepreneurs. 

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Within 24 hours of winning the national competition, Rush traveled alone to the Netherlands to represent the U.S. in the international pitch contest. Rush said the trip was energetic and exciting, but noticed some similarities and differences between the European entrepreneurial community and our own.

“Like in the U.S., entrepreneurship is a vital part to their ecosystem,” Rush said. “Europeans, however, are far more conservative in investing then Americans. For example, the U.S. has the availability to a lot more early-stage investments and funds.”

Last week the Kansas City startup beat out six other U.S. companies—including Lincoln-based startup Travefy—to become the country’s representative in the competition’s international finals, hosted in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Along with the title of U.S. Champion, Rush won a $10,000 cash prize and a round-trip ticket to the Netherlands along with a $1,000 Apple gift card for being named Fan Favorite at the event in Kansas City last week. 

When asked about his thoughts looking back on the competition, Rush noted the support of his hometown entrepreneurial community as one of his largest take-aways. “We’ve got a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Kansas City,” he said. “It’s an incredibly competitive, yet supportive, environment.” 

The competition, which was first held in 2009 at the Netherland’s Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, included companies from 30 countries around the world. This was the first year that U.S. companies entered the competition, and Rush says the startup found out about Get in the Ring through the Kauffman Foundation.

The startup, which was founded in January 2012, is headquartered in the Kansas City Startup Village. Earlier this year EyeVerify raised a $2.3 million Series A round and began offering its mobile authentication software to banks and other financial institutions. 

Moving forward Rush said the startup has plans for commercialization in early 2014 and that, by and large, most of the coming year will be spent focusing on achieving that goal.

“We are going to keep on keeping on,” Rush said. “We also have had some great word of mouth so we hope that this keeps up next year.”

Credits: Event photo from EyeVerify.