Returpack, a Swedish privately owned company that aims to increase recycling, has selected fintech startup Payer to develop a new IoT technology with the aim to create an easy digital payout experience for consumers. Payer was chosen to develop the core engine, a machine-to-consumer, digital payout solution directly to the consumers’ bank account that was built using Payer’s modular API payments platform. The digital solution is now being rolled out across Sweden. In the first roll-out phase are 57 machines, designed to receive bulk deposits. The solution works in a combination of the machine, the cloud and a mobile app.…

Lithuania-based Bankera, a fintech focused on serving blockchain businesses, recently announced support of the SEPA Instant payments. With this move, both personal and business clients have access to instant transfers within more than 2,300 banks and financial institutions among the Single European Payment Area (SEPA) network at any time including holidays. The option allows to process deposits and withdrawals within SEPA instantly; businesses offering this possibility are much more attractive to end-users, as it significantly decreases the time required to process payments. Besides, it opens up a way for companies to settle with suppliers or business partners in seconds. “Our…

ArcaPay UAB, the subsidiary of ArcaPay, a UK-based and FCA regulated cross-border payments platform, has been granted a payment institution license by the Bank of Lithuania. The company, founded in London in 2011, is opening a new base in Lithuania and announced post-Brexit expansion plans. By establishing a base in an emerging fintech center in Vilnius, Lithuania, ArcaPay expects to penetrate Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish and Scandinavian markets. The new entity will be headed by Virginijus Kausas, who has played a key role in ArcaPay’s expansion in the EU in recent years. ArcaPay specialises in cross-border payments, foreign exchange and currency…

Veriff, an Estonian identity verification provider, announced that it has secured US$ 69 million in Series B financing in a round led by investment firms IVP and Accel. This latest investment brings Veriff’s total secured funding to date to US$ 92.8 million. Jules Maltz of IVP and Matt Weigand of Accel will also join Veriff’s board of directors as a result of the investment. With this latest round of funding, Veriff said that it will continue building on its fast-growing market opportunity in the U.S. and deliver on its promise of building a stronger source of identity online than government-issued…

Finland-based mobile payments platform ePassi has launched a unique collaboration with Finnair where members of their frequent flyer program can now pay for services with Finnair Plus points at the former’s merchant sites around Finland. ePassi, operating in Finland and Sweden, currently has 1.5 million users and 35,000 merchant sites in the Nordic countries. Payments can be made using the ePassi mobile app at the checkout of the chosen site. The collaboration will be further expanded to include thousands of restaurants towards the summer of 2021. ePassi and Finnair expect the service to gain popularity among a vast group of…

Latvian airline airBaltic announces that it will become the world’s first airline to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The airline will issue limited collector NFTs showcasing an individual Airbus A220-300 with its registration as well as a piece of art of one of the most beloved Latvian cities to promote tourism and Latvia in the world. Martin Gauss, Chief Executive Officer of airBaltic: “The blockchain technology has proven to be here long-term. After being the first airline to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, it is the next step for us in blockchain technology to offer non-fungible tokens. NFTs are…

Meniga, a provider of digital banking solutions founded in Iceland, announced that it has closed a €10 million strategic investment round. The round was led by institutional investors, Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures, and Frumtak Ventures. Other participants in the round include Industrifonden, the UK Government’s Future Fund, and existing customers UniCredit, Swedbank, Groupe BPCE, and Íslandsbanki. Meniga said that the funding will be used for continued investment in Meniga’s R&D activities, and in particular the development of innovative green banking products. Additionally, the new injection of investment will help strengthen Meniga’s sales and service teams. In 2020, Meniga said that…

Jeff App, a Latvian fintech startup providing a data-enabled loan brokerage platform for unbanked customers in Asia, has closed a $1 million financing round. Jeff App said that the funds will be used to launch new products and fuel growth in Vietnam, their first market, before expanding into other countries in Southeast Asia. The startup will also use the funds to launch and scale new products that range from a free credit score and insurance offers to digital discount coupons and mobile wallet cashbacks. Additionally, the funding will also help to expand across the region, starting with Indonesia and the…

Nordic-based card issuing and payment processing services provider Enfuce has raised €7 million in Series B funding led by Tencent who had invested €5 million in the company. Meanwhile, Enfuce’s prior investors Maki.vc invested the other €2 million, bringing the total amount raised by the company to €15 million so far. With the investment, Enfuce is set to gain more growth in Europe as well as globally, and explore the opportunities of company acquisitions to speed up growth. Enfuce reportedly has a global customer base spanning 16 countries to provide innovative payment, open banking, and sustainability services for corporates and…

Opera Limited, a browser provider headquartered in Oslo, announced that it has hired PayPal veteran Allen Hu as the new Executive Vice President (EVP) of Dify, which is the browser’s fintech arm. An expert in financial technology and payments, Allen Hu will lead the Dify business. He brings a wealth of experience from nearly ten years at PayPal, where he was Regional Head of Global Core Payments, based in California. Hu gained expertise in fintech as a Venture Partner in Sequoia Capital China, where he focused on investments in the fintech sector. Prior to that, he was the General Manager…

Temenos, a Swiss banking software company, announced that Lithuanian electronic money institution FINCI has gone live with Temenos. FINCI said that Temenos’ rich banking functionality and API-first, microservices-based technology enabled it to design, build and launch the service from scratch in just 4 months. FINCI is running next generation Temenos Payments on cloud-native technology along with Temenos Transact core banking on the same environment. This allows FINCI users to send, manage and receive instant multi-currency payments alongside with possibility for further extension of intelligent financial management tools all within a single app. FINCI said that it aims to simplify daily…

Revolut has launched as a bank in 10 additional European markets with a specialised banking license from the European Central Bank via the Bank of Lithuania. Customers in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia who upgrade to Revolut Bank for additional services will now have their deposits protected under the deposit guarantee scheme. Customers in aforementioned countries are now able to upgrade to Revolut Bank for additional services from within the app. The upgrade process will reportedly only take customers a mere few minutes. To date,Revolut Group has raised almost $1 billion in investment and…

Estonia is emerging as a leader in e-government, embracing digital platforms and technologies to bring seamless and convenient e-services to citizens. Today, 99% of public services, including tax filings and public voting, are available digitally to Estonians, and these solutions have allowed the country to save over 800 years of working time and 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually, according to a new report by consulting firm PwC. In 1997, Estonia began building its digital society through an e-governance system to provide public services online. This was later formalised with the launch of e-Estonia, a policy that has led…

Juni, a Swedish-based banking platform for e-commerce and online marketing companies, has selected regtech TruNarrative to deliver compliance and onboarding technology. This move will provide Juni the capability to successfully onboard and monitor their individual and business clients. The Juni and TruNarrative partnership will deliver full access to the latter’s solutions and capabilities for client onboarding, identity verification, Pep’s, sanctions, adverse media monitoring, and ongoing risk monitoring. TruNarrative will also deliver checks and ongoing monitoring against corporate entities, their directors and associated third parties. Within the TruNarrative interface, Juni will also have access to a full case management system for…

The financial technology sector has faced multiple challenges in the last year. Like many other industries worldwide, the finance sector lost its workforce, and many businesses had to close down. But inefficiencies bring new opportunities, leading the way for fintech companies to emerge and take the role of aiding those affected. Fintech and Sustainable Innovation center Rockit initiated a global discussion with fintech experts from Sweden, UK, Switzerland and Lithuania to understand fintech’s objectives and challenges outside the Lithuanian ecosystem and see where the sector is headed. Inefficiencies create new opportunities Challenges of yesterday create opportunities for tomorrow. Last year…

The Nets Group, a payment provider in Europe, announced the completion of the sale of its account-to-account based services, including clearing, instant payment services, and e-billing solutions, to Mastercard for €2.85 billion. This follows the successful conclusion of the remedy taker approval process stipulated by the European Commission in August 2020. The operations sold to Mastercard represented the majority of Nets’ Corporate Services division, comprising the clearing and instant payment services and e-billing solutions, including Betalingsservice in Denmark and AvtaleGiro/eFaktura in Norway. The proceeds from the transaction will be predominantly used to deliver and support Nets Group’s balance sheet. The…

Swedish payments firm Klarna announced the expansion of its open banking solution across eight more European countries, which now includes Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. As part of the latest expansion, Klarna also introduced the “Account Insights'” feature which turns simple bank statements into unique insights through categorisation and data enrichment. These insights can enable a variety of use cases including personalised budget plans, insurance checks, loan applications, credit and risk assessments, personal finance management applications, and many more, through a simple API integration. Klarna said that it currently supports a total of 24 countries in…

Volvo Cars plans to to become a fully electric car company by 2030 and sell them exclusively online by then. The company intends to only sell fully electric cars and phase out any car in its global portfolio with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids. The company’s transition towards becoming a fully electric car maker is part of its climate plan, which seeks to consistently reduce the life cycle carbon footprint per car through concrete action. Its decision also builds on the expectation that legislation as well as a rapid expansion of accessible high quality charging infrastructure will accelerate consumer…

ePassi Payments, a Finnish mobile payment solution for employee benefits, has entered an agreement to acquire Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services’ (BRS) business in Nordics, including Sodexo Pass Sweden and the Finnish company Eazybreak. Bregal Milestone remains the majority shareholder of ePassi Payments. As part of this transaction, Sodexo will reinvest and become a 15% shareholder of ePassi. Through these acquisitions, ePassi will reportedly further strengthen its position in the Nordics, nearing a userbase of 1.5 million. The combined entity will have close to 9,000 clients, more than 35,000 affiliated merchants, and a Gross Merchandise Volume of approximately EUR 350…

Ooniq, peer-to-peer insurance platform of Workpower, has completed a year-long of testing within the Bank of Lithuania’s regulatory sandbox. The regulatory sandbox allows companies developing innovative financial products and business solutions to test them in a real environment under supervision and consultation of the Bank of Lithuania. The sandbox allows the central bank to identify potential risks and regulatory shortcomings in advance, ensuring that only high-quality and safe products and services enter the market. The peer-to-peer insurance platform allows its members to form groups with similar interests and protect themselves against losses by pooling funds for this purpose. Group members…