With the world becoming increasingly digital each year, the role of fintech companies providing nextgen financial services has been growing. Hardly anyone remembers the days when, for example, you had to go to a bank branch to solve your banking issues. According to Greta Ranonytė, Head of the Fintech Hub LT Association, financial technology is like éminence grise: we may not know the names of the companies, but we feel the results of their work and innovations every day, when transferring money using just a mobile phone number, paying in a shop with a swipe of a card or a…

The Council of Latvijas Banka has approved an initiative that will enable non-bank payment service providers – payment and e-money institutions – and in the future also crypto-asset service providers to open an account with Latvijas Banka for the segregation of their customer funds. Likewise, Latvijas Banka will provide non-bank payment service providers with the possibility to directly participate in the Electronic Clearing System (EKS), thus facilitating the development of payment services in Latvia. It is planned that the possibility to open an account for separate holding of customer funds in euro with Latvijas Banka will be provided to payment…

Lithuania’s new 2023-2028 fintech strategy is putting a focus on attracting fintech leaders and supporting the qualitative development of the Lithuanian fintech sector in a bid to become a leading European fintech hub and center of excellence. Released on October 23, the Guidelines for the Development of the Lithuanian Fintech Sector for 2023-2028 formulate directions and areas of focus for the development of the fintech sector in Lithuania within the next five years. The strategy sets out ambitious goals including an annual sector turnover growth rate of 30% and 35 million customers spread out across companies licensed in Lithuania by…

Shufti Pro, an identity verification service provider announced its strategic partnership with Lithuanian based AMLYZE, a RegTech company specialising in anti-financial crime solutions for FinTechs, neo-banks, and crypto businesses. This collaboration brings together the best of both companies’ expertise to offer clients an unparalleled suite of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) screening solutions. AMLYZE, recognised for its transaction monitoring, client risk scoring, investigations, and sanctions screening services, developed by regulatory insiders in collaboration with IT and AML experts, has joined forces with Shufti Pro to leverage the latter’s cutting-edge compliance services along with KYC and KYB (Know…

In Sweden, fintech companies are finding it more difficult to secure funding, noting that investors have adopted a more cautious approach amid economic uncertainties, geopolitical turmoil and soaring inflation. But despite the challenging venture funding landscape, fintech entrepreneurs remain confident in the sector’s prospects and are expecting growth in the year to come, a new report by industry trade group, the Swedish Fintech Association (SweFintech), says. The report, titled the 2023 Fintech Report: From Growth to Profitability, provides an overview of the Swedish fintech industry, describing how the industry developed in 2022 and exploring the various challenges encountered by Swedish…

iDenfy, a global RegTech startup offering automated identity verification and fraud prevention tools, announced a partnership with NomadRem, a Lithuania-based fintech company, which offers quick money transfers, bill payments, and a variety of other financial solutions. iDenfy’s newly integrated ID verification and AML screening tools will ensure a fraud-free, compliant environment for NomanRem. Demanding Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures can create friction in the user onboarding process. At the same time, iDenfy explains that lengthy identity verification and screening processes may deter potential customers from signing up or using the service, leading to a loss for…

October marks the one-year anniversary, since the Latvian airline airBaltic launched its loyalty programme – a collection of 10 000 non-fungible tokens (NFT), known as Planies. Now, the company is committed to further developing this project, thus introducing a new 12-point roadmap, which brings exclusive travel benefits and activities for Planies NFT holders in the upcoming years. So far, the programme has attracted over 1.5 thousand unique users, and Planies has distributed millions of air miles (points), enriching the travel experiences of members of airBaltic Club. Māris Rudens, Head of Loyalty and Partnerships of airBaltic: “Planies is the world’s first…

Plug and Play is set to collaborate with innovative startups in Lithuania. This landmark collaboration entails an investment of EUR 5.9 million to nurture a minimum of 45 startups over the span of three years. “We are creating additional opportunities for our startups, aiming to foster their growth and facilitate product exports to foreign markets. The involvement of a US company will aid entrepreneurs in forming precise connections with foreign investors and prominent global corporations. As a result, we anticipate accelerating the expansion of our startup ecosystem, which has seen its value surge more than 17-fold in recent years. Our…

In Estonia, blockchain and cryptocurrency is the most prevalent and advanced vertical of the fintech sector, representing more than a fifth of all Estonian fintech startups, a new map released by the Fintech News Network reveals. The Fintech Estonia Startup Map 2023, which gives an overview of the Estonian fintech startup ecosystem, shows that the Baltic country is seeing the rapid development of its blockchain and crypto sector which today comprises 30 companies. The figure makes the vertical the biggest in the country’s fintech industry. One prominent player in the market is Guardtime, a cybersecurity provider that uses blockchain systems…

The main institutional actors in Lithuania’s Fintech ecosystem signed a Memorandum of Understanding confirming the National Fintech Guidelines for 2023-2028. The Guidelines, which consist of five separate directions, are aimed at improving the conditions for businesses and continuously developing an open, transparent and secure regulatory framework. The Guidelines were drafted under the supervision of Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance, acknowledging the strategic importance and potential of the sector to the country’s economy. Today, the country is the largest Fintech hub in the EU by licences issued. It is also one of the lowest risk jurisdictions globally, according to the Basel AML…

AMLYZE, a Vilnius-based RegTech firm specializing in anti-financial crime solutions for FinTechs, neo-banks, and crypto businesses, has successfully concluded a $1 million pre-seed investment round. The round was led by Practica Capital, with participation from the Firstpick accelerator and venture capital fund. The funding will be used to scale AMLYZE’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business, facilitate international expansion, and introduce advanced functionalities to its core product offering. With a current client base primarily located in the Baltic States and the United Kingdom, AMLYZE is experiencing a surge in demand for its transaction monitoring, risk assessment, and case investigation solutions. The global scale…

After the amendments to the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act took effect on 15 March 2022, the validity of 389 authorisations has expired, either based on the decision of the Financial Intelligence Unit or at the request of the service providers. As of 1 May 2023, there were 100 active authorisations in Estonia for the provision of virtual asset services. Following the entry into force of the enhanced requirements in the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act, service providers abandoned nearly 200 authorizations. In addition, the Financial Intelligence Unit revoked almost the same number of authorisations due…

Funderbeam, an Estonian angel investing and trading platform, has received US$40 million investment led by Irish Venture capital firm VentureWave. VentureWave said that it will take an active and strategic leadership role in scaling Funderbeam’s technology across venture assets. The group now has an evolved US market entry strategy through Vestiver, the institutional venture platform. Following the completion of the transaction, the group will target the entire life cycle of global venture investments and secondaries, from early-stage angel funding until pre-IPO secondaries. Funderbeam will continue to serve investor networks and provide Private Market as a service. Following the transaction with…

Estateguru has announced that the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) has granted the platform its European Crowdfunding Service Providers for business (ECSPR) licence, allowing it to operate as a crowdfunding service provider across all European Union (EU) member states under unified rules. Estateguru was the first crowdfunding platform to be regulated in several markets, including Lithuania, Finland and the United Kingdom. The granting of the new Pan-European licence, serves to confirm that the company is fully compliant with all of the recently introduced regulations, and that its internal processes and procedures meet the financial standards necessary to operate…

GovTech Innovation Bank is a pool of digital innovations – products, services – developed or planned to be launched by companies, startups, academia, or other innovation teams. Registered innovations will be presented to public sector organizations that plan to improve internal processes, products and services or develop data driven policies. Registered digital innovations will have an opportunity to be: tested and adapted in the public sector through the Challenge Series programme organized by GovTech Lab Lithuania, presented at the GovTech Leaders 2023 conference, GovTech Academy and other events. The main criteria for innovations to be registered in the GovTech Innovation…

Despite turbulent market conditions, the Lithuanian fintech sector demonstrated resilience in 2022, recording strong revenue growth and sustained startup funding activity, new data from Invest Lithuania, the country’s agency for foreign direct investment and business development, show. The Fintech Landscape in Lithuania 2022-2023 report, released earlier this month, provides an overview of the Lithuanian fintech industry, sharing the latest trends emerging in the sector and presenting the latest data, success stories, and market expectations for what is coming next in the sector. According to the report, though 2022 was a trying year for the Lithuanian fintech sector, marked by Russia’s…

With 19 insurtech startups, Sweden is the biggest insurtech market in the Nordics, hosting 60% of all of the region’s insurtech companies, a report by Sollers Consulting, an international operational advisory and software integrator, reveals. The Nordic Insurtech Report, released on September 28, 2022, looks at the insurtech landscape in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark, examining the different startups in the ecosystem, their business models and value propositions. The study identified 31 insurtech startups across the region, with Sweden taking the lion’s share in terms of company country, followed by Finland with five insurtech companies, Denmark with four, and Norway…

Fintech Fintech company Saldo Bank UAB has announced the launch of banking operations in Lithuania. Having built regulatory readiness after obtaining a specialised bank licence from the European Central Bank, Saldo Bank will introduce term deposits and continue providing loans for Lithuanian consumers and SME customers. The company also has plans to introduce new banking services like payment cards. Therefore, the company plans to grow its local team and then expand to other countries. Saldo Bank is a  provider of responsible lending solutions in Nordics. The company’s business model and differentiation is built on its fully-automated lending engine that streamlines…

The financial technology sector in Lithuania continues to develop. There is a steady increase in the number of people employed, the turnover of companies, and more taxes are being paid. However, it is predicted that in the background of global stagnation, fintech companies will show such a rapid growth, and development resources will have to be sought by optimising operations. How to overcome perhaps the toughest challenges of the past decade will be discussed in Vilnius, at the international conference Fintech Day, organised by Rockit and the association Fintech Hub LT. One of its organisers, Liudas Kanapienis, the head of…

Motivated talent and a forward-thinking regulator – that is what a leading financial technology platform Airwallex cites among the reasons for establishing operations in Lithuania. After obtaining an electronic money institution (EMI) licence from the Bank of Lithuania, the company set up an EMEA service hub Airwallex Lithuania in Vilnius in 2022. Today, Airwallex is looking to expand its local team to support future growth in Lithuania and across the region. Global fintech Airwallex provides financial infrastructure for businesses to accept payments and move money internationally. The company’s platform offers a streamlined and cost-efficient way to manage everything from treasury…