As businesses become more global, companies planning to relocate or expand are looking for cities that are attractive both for economic reasons and for the wellbeing of their employees. Finding locations matching these criteria may not be easy, but Vilnius definitely ticks these boxes. 1. Special attention and free support for relocation to Vilnius In mid-November, the new International House Vilnius service centre opened in Vilnius. It has partnered with 10 official Lithuanian institutions to help foreigners with services in English and Russian. International House Vilnius facilitates the process of obtaining a residence permit and compulsory health insurance, declaring your…

Zurich Insurance Group has agreed to acquire Estonia-based conversational AI company AlphaChat. AlphaChat’s customer service automation technology will help to enhance Zurich Insurance Group’s conversational AI capabilities, and support the development of Intelligent Virtual Assistants for both internal and external business purposes, a statement said. The 2017-founded startup provides a messaging automation product capable of understanding natural language, authenticating users, providing personalised responses and executing transactions. “We have spent decades to learn how to communicate with computers through different programming languages. Now it is time for computers to learn how to have a personal conversation with all of us. …

Revolut has received a banking license issued by the European Central Bank, following a proposal by the Lithuanian central bank. The company will now provide payment services in addition to its current activities of accepting deposits and granting loans in Lithuania, according to an announcement by Bank of Lithuania. Payment services include card payments, direct debit, credit transfer, cash withdrawal, money remittance, payment initiation, and account information services. Banking services were previously provided by Revolut Payments, Revolut’s Lithuania business arm that held an electronic money institution license. The Bank of Lithuania approved its merger with Revolut Bank at the beginning…

Estonia-based late venture investment marketplace Raison has secured US$900,000 in a seed funding round. The round values the company at US$11.5 million, and was led by family office Server Partners, according to a statement by the company. The company will use the funding to continue the development of innovative investment solutions and accelerate its international expansion. Raison had previously raised US$150,000 pre-seed funding from an angel investor in 2020. The company’s solution provides retail investors with access to late venture investment deals. This year, the platform added 10 new deals and increased its user base by more than 3x, exceeding…

The value of payment transactions by electronic money and payment institutions in Lithuania grew 6.3x year on year, and their income from licensed activities grew 4.8x, in Q3 this year. According to the Bank of Lithuania, the value of payment transactions by electronic money and payment institutions reached EUR157.6 billion in Q3, growing 29.4% compared to Q2. Companies earned EUR333.6 million from licensed activities, from EUR264.8 million last year. EMIs earned 94% and PIs earned 6% of this income. Further, one market participant held 51% of market share by income from licensed activities, and 63% in terms of the value…

Denmark-based B2B spend management service Pleo has raised US$200 million in a Series C extension round. It now brings the company’s total Series C round to US$350 million. The round was raised at a valuation of US$4.7 billion, according to an announcement by Pleo. The company’s total funding now stands at US$427.5 million. The Series C extension was led by Coatue Management, with participation from Alkeon Capital, as well as Stripes, Kinnevik, Creandum, Founders and Seedcamp. Funding will be used to expand across 15 new European markets, including Finland, Austria, Portugal, Netherlands and France. The company is also looking to…

The fintech industry in the Nordic region, which comprises Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, saw strong funding growth in 2021 with record deal amounts. Out of the ten biggest funding rounds announced this year, Sweden leads the chart with seven deals, followed by Denmark with two and Finland with one. Sweden’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Klarna closed the two largest rounds but neobanking was the most represented fintech segment with big sums going towards the likes of Lunar and Northmill Bank. Other categories were also represented as well including financial management and insurtech. Klarna – US$1 billion…

European Card-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform Enfuce has raised EUR45 million in a Series C round. The round was led by growth investor Vitruvian Partners, with participation from Tencent, a statement from the company said. The funding will be used to drive global growth and boost the development of the company’s technology platform. The 2016-founded card issuing platform has more than 13 million active card users, with Enfuce processing nearly EUR 1 billion in transactions annually. More recently, the company expanded its presence to Germany and France as well. Enfuce claims to be the first fintech company in Europe to run a…

Fintech companies in Lithuania are among the best and fastest adapters to the Covid-19 pandemic. Fintech Hub LT statistics show that Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) have made the most progress. The latter have demonstrated excellent turnover and profitability figures, which reflect very well the increasing competition for traditional financial service providers. In 2020, fintech companies operating in Lithuania generated a turnover of EUR 399 million. This is a fifth more than in the pre-pandemic year 2019, when fintech companies generated a turnover of EUR 325 million. This year’s figures are forecast to be much higher. The data sample included e-money…

vArmour, a provider of application relationship management software, has just announced the establishment of their latest development center in Vilnius, Lithuania. The development center in Lithuania will be at the forefront of vArmour’s core development efforts and become one of the company’s primary European hubs. Having evaluated numerous sites around the EMEA region, vArmour said that it chose Lithuania for its track record in cybersecurity. The center will specialise in expanding 3rd party integrations, which will enable the company to better leverage its core capabilities of discovering, observing, and controlling application, user, and data relationships across multiple IT environments. Additionally,…

Lithuanian financial intermediary SME Bank has signed a guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to support local small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). The agreement is made possible under the “European Guarantee Fund”, an initiative of the EIB Group and participating EU member states to help European businesses come through the difficult times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund is part of the €540 billion EU rescue package in the wake of the corona outbreak. With the EGF support, EIF will provide a 70% guarantee on a portfolio of new lending totaling up to €100 million by…

Estonian banking and financial services company LHV announced that its customers are now able to trade major crypto assets on its app. Initially, customers will be able to buy and sell eight selected major cryptocurrencies at market prices including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Uniswap (UNI), Chainlink (LINK), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Polygon (MATIC), and Aave (AAVE). LHV said that it is opening up the possibility for its clients to trade crypto assets around the clock in the mobile app via licensed crypto exchange Bitstamp. The crypto assets of clients will be securely held on the BitGo platform, which is…

Open data startup Okredo has closed a €1 million seed funding round led by the Lithuanian Business Angels Fund and Presto Ventures, with support from Startup Wise Guys as well as several angel investors. Okredo said that this round of funding will be used to expand into new European markets, amidst a backdrop of growing regulatory support for open data. The Lithuanian startup’s SaaS platform helps SMEs assess the credibility, financial strength and sales potential of new and existing business partners and customers. With the EU’s Open Data Directive going into effect this year, businesses and other enterprises in member…

Lithuania’s buy-to-let crowdfunding platform InRento is scaling abroad by expanding its operation to Spain and acquiring Estonian real estate marketplace BitOfProperty, which offers a similar service. InRento said that its expansion into Spain was a natural move as there are experienced professionals from the country’s real estate market among its shareholders. Spain has a sizeable and diverse property market, and InRento will specialise in the specific niche of short-term rental projects. Initially, their focus is on the Iberian mountain resort of La Molina and the Mediterranean region on Costa Brava in the north-east of the country. Additionally, InRento will fully…

Trustly, a global payments platform for digital account-to-account transactions, has announced a partnership with IKEA. Through the partnership, Trustly will enable IKEA’s shoppers to pay for their purchases directly from their online bank account. The collaboration also equips IKEA with a partner for future growth into additional markets as Trustly offers access to more than 30 countries through a single API integration. The partnership has initially rolled out in Austria and will extend to several other European countries in the coming months. Trustly’s global offering supports high transaction values, ensures settlement of payments, and simplifies reconciliation, addressing some of IKEA’s…

Funding activity is stalling in the Baltics’ fintech sector as startups are failing to raise considerable rounds this year, data from Fintech Global show. In the first nine months of 2021, Baltic fintech companies raised just a little over US$121 million. This is far behind the 2017 peak during which a total of US$600 million was raised, most of which from mega-rounds of US$100 million and over (e.g. Coinverco, US$120 million; and 4finance, US$325 million). So far this year, Estonia is leading the region, securing nine of the top ten fintech deals of Q1-Q3 2021, including Veriff’s US$69 million Series…

Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform Klarna announces it has signed an agreement to acquire shopping comparison site PriceRunner. Details of the deal were not disclosed. PriceRunner will bring new features in the form of product reviews, rich product discovery and price comparisons, daily price updates, professional tests and intelligent filtering options. Klarna will add PriceRunner’s functionality to its offering while Klarna’s retail partners will benefit from enhanced behavior insight and increased website traffic. David Fock, Chief Product Officer at Klarna said, “The acquisition will serve to strengthen our bank, card and payment services and support a competitive global landscape.…

B2B payments specialist Banking Circle announced that it has joined the Danish national intraday clearing system. Through Banking Circle as a direct clearing participant, payments businesses and banks can now pay out and collect payments locally in Denmark on behalf of their customers more quickly and at lower cost than via traditional cross border payment methods. This will enable e-commerce businesses around the world to tap into the growing Danish market. With this new clearing option, Banking Circle enables its clients to offer their customers payments and collections in Danish krone (DKK) in their own name rather than that of…

Saldo Finance, a subsidiary of Finnish Saldo Finance Plc, has been granted European Central Bank’s (ECB) specialised banking license in Lithuania. ECB’s specialised banking license will make it possible for Saldo to accept deposits, grant loans and provide funds transfer and other usual banking services with the exception of investment services. With the business volume multiplying, Saldo will be able to expand its product portfolio into other financing products. The company entered the Lithuanian market in March 2021 where Saldo started its operations by offering consumer loans and will next bring different financing solutions for SMEs. Established in 2006, Saldo…

Sweden’s credentials in sustainability and Stockholm’s vibrant fintech ecosystem are converging into a flourishing green fintech market where players are gaining traction and starting to expand globally. This booming sector is highlighted in the 2021 edition of the yearly Stockholm Fintech Guide, which depicts the state of fintech in Sweden’s capital city, outlining the key trends observed over the past year and the “next wave of fintech” innovation that’s emerging. Green fintech was highlighted as one of these growing sectors, a market that has emerged on the back of Sweden’s position as an environmental pioneer, and Stockholm’s rise into a…