Build What Lasts in a World That Doesn’t – Exclusive Interview with Nicolas Grebenkine
Nicolas Grebenkine is an entrepreneur, blockchain pioneer, and CEO of Aetsoft. Starting as an Investment Manager, he built expertise in spotting opportunities for emerging technologies: AI, blockchain, IoT. He has overseen the creation of 10+ in-house products, several featured in international accelerators. He now leads Aetsoft, a software company that delivers complex emerging tech solutions for enterprises and startups.
Nicolas Grebenkine, CEO of Aetsoft
Who is Nicolas Grebenkine?
I'm someone who’s always been curious about how things work and how technology can make them work better. I started out in investment management, studying startups and deciding which ideas were ready to grow. That taught me two things: how to read trends and when to act. I learned that timing is everything.
When I became CEO of Aetsoft, I wanted to apply this thinking to building products and partnerships. The company already had strong technical roots, and my focus was on shaping it into a strategy-first organization.
Technology was advancing quickly, but not every enterprise was ready to take the leap and adopt it. With Aetsoft, I try to see where the market is heading and make sure that our clients get there early.
What inspired you about emerging technologies?
It started with blockchain. Coming from finance, I saw it not as a trend but as a shift in how value itself could move. Everyone was talking about Bitcoin, but what caught my attention was the structure underneath a system that could make assets fractional and liquid. Finance has always been slowed down by paperwork and middlemen; blockchain replaces that with code and instant verification. It makes ownership digital and brings liquidity to markets that never had it before.
From fintech, my focus naturally expanded. We’re still only starting to see what AI and blockchain can really do, but their potential already goes far beyond today’s use cases. To give you one example, we built a green energy monitoring system that uses AI to forecast turbine performance and blockchain to securely record the results. And this is only the beginning.
What sets Aetsoft apart from other emerging tech companies?
We are a strategy company first. We do build complex systems, but we realize that tech is only a means to a business goal.
Take financial technology, for example. It’s one of the most regulated industries today. Blockchain might be a breakthrough technology, but it still operates within a legal framework. If you’re tokenizing digital securities, you must not only comply with financial laws, but also take care of licensing. The same applies to many other domains.
So we offer our clients an all-around partnership. Over the years, we’ve built a global ecosystem of legal partners who handle the licensing and regulations, so we can focus on building solid tech.
How do you make sure the solutions you build stay scalable and ready for the future?
To build scalable solutions, you first need a deep understanding of technology. We’ve been working with blockchain and fintech since 2014, and we got into AI long before the hype. Today, you can spin up a simple AI startup using the ChatGPT API. Back then, there were no ready-made APIs or platforms, so we built data centers and trained custom LLMs from scratch.
Today, a client might come to us for something simple. But we always build with growth in mind because we know what it takes to scale complex systems, even our smallest products are designed to expand smoothly when the time comes.
Most of our enterprise clients come to us for the hard part, the architecture or compliance. But not every project needs deep complexity from day one, and that’s fine. The point is, clients can rely on us when they’re ready to take the next step.
And it’s not just about technology. Working in emerging tech is a bit like building on shifting ground. Nothing is set in stone: not regulations, not APIs, not infrastructure. So we always design for change.
What should companies keep in mind before adopting digital asset solutions?
The digital asset market is growing fast. Deloitte projects it could reach around $4 trillion by 2035 in just tokenized real estate. But, as I mentioned before, behind every blockchain solution, there’s still regulation. So if you’re planning a security token issuance, don’t start with the tech alone. Partner with a team that can guide you through both the technical and legal sides.
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