You might have seen some updates from Revolut about account migration to their new European license. Revolut’s intention is to make sure that the client experience isn’t interrupted and that Revolut can be used normal. So that Revolut is fully prepared they going to start moving the Lithuanian customers to their new licensed European entity before Brexit. We know that you’ll have some questions about this, Revolut is answering it here: What is Revolut doing to prepare for Brexit? We have been planning to make sure our users are unaffected by any Brexit outcome. We have set up a licensed…

The fall of the Soviet Union brought about more than a dozen sovereign nations, each taking a distinct path from the other. Lithuania, the first country to regain its independence on March 11, 1990, has already developed its fair share of success stories – spanning from basketball victories to its first unicorn startup – Vinted. The strides made on the intersection of business, science and technology can be best described by the three completely different fields of Photonics, Life Sciences and Fintech. A perfect storm that shaped Lithuanian Fintech While Lithuanian Photonics and Life Sciences took decades to establish themselves…

The European Commission has announced it is supporting the upcoming Global Hack, an online hackathon organised by the world’s tech community. The Hackathon is designed to rapidly develop much needed solutions in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Kai Isand, head organiser of the Global Hack, believes the event is the best example of a startup mindset and how to act quickly when facing a challenge. “This is our call to hack the crisis – not only to brainstorm solutions to prevent and stop the spreading of a highly-infectious disease but to think about how our lives will be different after this.…

The fintech sector in the Baltic states is rapidly growing on the back of proactive governments that have set sights on establishing a favorable environment for the industry to thrive. Lithuania launched a regulatory sandbox in 2017 to allow fintechs and financial services companies to test out innovative products, Estonia, the birthplace of some of the world’s leading fintechs including TransferWise and Guardtime, has embraced blockchain and electronic ID, and Latvia have seen its fintech industry grow steadily over the past years with several of its startups, including Mintos and Twino, expanding rapidly across the region. With fintech gaining speed…

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Lithuanian government has imposed quarantine – and people in the capital Vilnius reacted with solidarity and speed. In the first week of quarantine thousands of volunteers offered their help, entrepreneurs have raised large sums for medical equipment using just online messaging, and telecommunications companies provided resources to coordinate the joint effort. The ongoing efforts of Vilnius municipality to build a tech-savvy and focused community of citizens also proved to be crucial in the face of crisis. The force that is uniting the biggest numbers of volunteers is the municipality-inspired group Gedimino Legionas (Gediminas Legion) that is raising…

Analysis of industry data by Nucoro reveals that 7% of people in work in Sweden earn over $90,000 a year or 906,000 Swedish Krona (SEK). It’s analysis also reveals a growing pool of wealthy people in Sweden, many of whom Nucoro believes are increasingly open to using digital wealth management services. There were around 200,500 millionaires in Sweden in 2018, and this is set to rise to 245,000 (an increase of 22%) by 2023. In terms of those Swedes worth $30 million or more, there were around 3,820 with this level of wealth in 2018, and this is expected to…

The Riksbank is conducting a pilot project with Accenture aimed at developing a proposal for a technical solution for an e-krona. The objective is to create, in an isolated test environment, a digital krona that is simple and user-friendly. The technical solution will be based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), often referred to as block-chain technology. The main aim of the pilot is for the Riksbank to increase its knowledge of central bank-issued digital krona. The Riksbank is conducting a pilot project with Accenture to develop a technical solution for an e-krona that can work as a complement to cash.…

2019 was a key year for Lithuania’s fintech sector, with the number of companies in the sector rising to more than 200 and the country being recognized as one of the most dynamic fintech hubs globally, according to a new report by Invest Lithuania, the Lithuanian investment promotion agency. Lithuania is now home to 210 fintech companies, a 24% increase compared with the previous year, and has issued 102 licenses going towards electronic money institutions (EMIs), payment institutions, and so-called special purpose banks. In 2019, the number of people employed by companies in the sector rose 30% to 3,400. The…

Fintech is a rapidly emerging area of business in Estonia with now 78 companies, among which 18 in the blockchain, crypto space, according to the first ever draft of the Estonia Fintech Startup Map. Estonia has a burgeoning blockchain industry and its history dates back to 2008 when the country began utilizing the technology. Since then, the sector has rapidly grown and given birth to the likes of Guardtime, the world’s largest blockchain company, and Funderbeam, a global investing and trading platform utilizing blockchain. Today, Guardtime’s KSI Blockchain is utilized by clients including Verizon, the US and Thai governments,…

Like other Baltic nations, Latvia has witnessed the steady growth of a fintech scene. Today, the country is home to 50 fintech startups and has rapidly expanding blockchain and alternative lending segments, according to the Fintech Latvia Startup Map 2020. In Latvia, there are currently seven fintech companies operating in the crypto/blockchain space. These include Bitfury, a leading security and infrastructure provider, Axioma, a developer of blockchain solutions, Blockvis, a blockchain consulting and development agency, Netcore, a web development company, and Velvet, a blockchain-powered deal platform. In the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and alternative finance space, notable Latvian startups include P2P…

The fintech landscape in the Nordic and Baltic regions continues to be one of the most successful at producing unicorns with recent examples that include TransferWise, from Estonia, and Klarna Bank, from Sweden. As we head into 2020, we look today at some of this year’s top fintech events and conferences to help you keep up with the region’s rapidly changing fintech landscape. sTARTUp Day 2020 January 29 – 31, 2020 Tartu, Estonia sTARTUp Day is the biggest festival in the Baltics, bringing together startups, traditional entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and students. The aim of the event is to connect…

The Riksbank has implemented a public procurement of a technology supplier to the e-krona pilot project and intends to sign an agreement with consulting company Accenture. The primary objective of the e-krona pilot project is to broaden the bank’s understanding of the technological possibilities for the e-krona. The assignment entails producing a solution as to how an e-krona could function in a test environment. During the first year of the e-krona pilot project, a technical platform will be developed with a user interface that enables, for instance, payment with the e-krona from a mobile phone, a card and a watch.…

Following the assessment and proposal of the Bank of Lithuania, the European Central Bank (ECB) granted PayRay, UAB a banking licence, authorising it to receive deposits and other repayable funds. The company is currently providing factoring services and microcredits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Having engaged in banking activities, the company intends to continue providing loans to SMEs as well as expanding its portfolio of services (e.g. online deposit collection) and geographical coverage. PayRay, UAB belongs to a holding company registered in Luxembourg. The company started its activities in Lithuania in June 2018 as a private limited liability company…

Ten years ago we probably haven’t even thought of the possibility to order a bank card online and that there will be no longer need for us to go to the bank unit where, in the end, the number of cash operations will decrease significantly. Banks are undergoing transformation, and their digitisation is faster than ever before. And it is bringing changes to us all. It is no coincidence that this is also one of the hot topics of this year’s Fintech Inn, the largest financial technology conference in the Nordic countries and the Baltic States. Digitalisation is inevitability, not…

Iceland’s financial services industry has changed rapidly over the past couple of years with fintech solutions at the forefront of these changes. Innovative fintech solutions are provided by the three largest commercial banks in the country, namely Landsbankinn, Íslandsbanki, and Arion Bank, but also by a growing list of independent businesses and startups which are leveraging cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain to reinvent the sector. The following are 9 fintech startups in Iceland to keep a close eye on. Meniga Founded in 2009, Meniga provides white-label digital banking solutions. Its award-winning products enable the world’s largest financial…

Currently, Danske Bank employs 3,725 employees and the average salary is 2,500 euros. The original interview was published in 15min.lt by Ernetas Naprys. Danske Bank has created more jobs than the two major banks operating in the country taken together. According to the state social insurance fund (Sodra), it is the fifth largest employer in Lithuania paying the highest wages. Giedrius Dzekunskas, manager of Danske Bank IT Centre in Lithuania, remembers that the original intention was to hire 350 employees. “But jobs go to where they are done,” he said. When you enter through the office door, you find yourself in a…

Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence division announced the list of 30 cities that have attracted the most greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects of tech startups per capita during the years 2016-2018. Vilnius was ranked as the leading city and outranked cities like Singapore, Tel Aviv, Berlin and London, which came in second. The Tech Start-up FDI Attraction Index 2019 measures at the city level the number of greenfield FDI projects made in the software and IT services sector per 100,000 inhabitants. Although London attracted the largest overall number of projects, it scored only 0.875 on a per-capita basis while Vilnius firmly came forward with 1.006.…

Over the past years, Finland’s fintech industry has been growing rapidly. Today, the nation is home to roughly 160 fintech companies covering a wide range of areas including payments, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, insurance, security and compliance, APIs and platforms, data and analytics, investing, wealth management, and more, according to data from Helsinki Fintech. Startup100, a platform that tracks startup companies’ online marketing activities and performance, has released the latest edition of its top 100 Finnish startups list, among which, nine fintech, insurtech and proptech startups. The following companies are the nine fintech, insurtech and proptech startups that made the list and…

Vilnius Factoring Company, a private lending company in Lithuania, has signed a cooperation agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to issue microloans of up to €25,000. Micro-enterprises and farmers in Lithuania can now benefit from non-banking business funding opportunities under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). The company is issuing microloans up to a total of €10 million with a guarantee from the EIF. The agreement is backed by the Juncker Plan’s European Fund for Strategic Investments, which allows the European Investment Bank Group to invest in higher-risk operations. The aim of the EaSI programme is…

One year in the market, and the real estate investment start-up Profitus is already counting its achievements and envisaging future challenges. The crowdfunding platform Profitus just raised over €5,315,000 and funded 28 real estate projects. The founder and head of Profitus, Viktorija Vanagė, is glad that one year was enough to achieve great results and earn the trust of investors and real estate developers. ‘Trust and experience are crucial in the financial sector, so our team is very happy that we managed to achieve great results and become the youngest and one of the leading participants in this market. There…