UK-based cross-border payments platform ArcaPay has entered the Latvian market to provide SMEs with trading partners outside the eurozone an alternative to commercial banks. ArcaPay specialises in cross-border payment, foreign exchange and currency risk management solutions. Its services are built for importing and exporting businesses that handle foreign currencies in their business, e.g. when paying suppliers abroad. Founded in London in 2011, ArcaPay says that it serves clients in over 20 countries and offers them payments in over 30 currencies to more than 100 destination countries. Latvia is the third country the company has expanded into, with the second being…

Striga, formerly known as Lastbit, is the first company to be awarded a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in Estonia under the amended Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act. Founded in 2018, Striga is building a crypto-native banking as a service platform for card issuing, IBANs, managed crypto wallets with custody and trading, and compliance. The company has raised US$3 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Brazilian venture capital firm Bossanova so far. The license approval indicates that Striga has been able to meet the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) enhanced regulations which came into force…

The central bank of Latvia’s semi-annual “Payment Radar” report found that the ratio of non-cash and cash payments in the country stood at 71% to 29% as at August 2022. The ratio of cash and non-cash payments in the previous February 2022 report was 74% to 26%. Cash availability is a matter of public interest in Latvia, especially in the last two years given the country’s proximity to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Public satisfaction with regards to the possibility to withdraw cash from bank accounts remained stable in the latest report, with 84% of those surveyed being completely or rather satisfied…

Lithuanian financing platform SME Finance has opened for business in Finland to provide loans to smaller businesses, including those with trading histories of under two years. Finland has a highly concentrated banking sector, with the top three banks controlling 80% of the business market — leading SME Finance to believe that its digital-first solutions will appeal to local businesses. SME Finance’s business in Lithuania has provided more than €1 billion in working capital to over 2,000 growing businesses, primarily in the Baltics. The company is planning further expansion in 2022 in the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany. Matias Peltoniemi, SME Finance’s…

The Nordic-Baltic eID Project (NOBID) is leading a consortium of six countries—Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia and Norway—to deliver a cross-border payments pilot aligned with the aims of the European Commission’s EU digital identity wallet program. The consortium’s proposal to be one of four EU digital identity wallet pilots focuses on payments, one of the top priority use cases in the EU’s digital ID wallet vision. The EU digital identity wallet is a biometrically-secured app that, when it comes into being, will allow citizens across the continent to easily verify their ID, access services and store sensitive digital documents. NOBID’s…

15 fintech companies – five from the Baltic region and 10 from the Nordic region – were selected to participate in Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV’s 2022 fall programme. Since its launch in 2018, the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV programme has been the definitive showcase of trends in Baltic and Nordic fintech with alumni like Doconomy and Aiia. The Fall 2022 programme’s main theme is “smarter payments” since many of the selected startups are focused on enhancing payment transactions through smart solutions, loyalty, transaction monitoring and fraud prevention. Meet the five Baltic companies selected for the Lighthouse Fall Class Of 2022: Latvia To…

Fairown, an Estonian fintech company that offers products-as-a-service to banks, brands, and retailers, is expanding its offerings in the Lithuanian consumer electronics market by partnering with local bank Inbank and retail consumer electronics company Topo Centras to launch the solution TOPO FLEX. The fintech’s suite of software and services allow brands to offer products for monthly subscriptions and manage the entire product life cycle from purchase to periodic renewals, repurposing, and recycling. This allows companies to participate in the circular economy by sustainably producing, consuming and reusing products, thereby reducing both excessive waste and the need for raw materials by…

Latvian flag carrier airBaltic has concluded the issuance of a non-fungible token (NFT) collection with 14 tokens issued on NFT marketplace OpenSea, each listed at a fixed price of 0.1 Ether. The fourteenth NFT in airBaltic’s City Collection is a digital art piece of Riga, the largest city and capital of Latvia. airBaltic became the world’s first airline to issue NFTs in April 2021 when it issued limited collector NFTs showcasing an individual Airbus A220-300 with its registration, as well as a piece of art of the ancient town Kuldīga. The airline previously launched a NFT collection called Planies comprising 10,000…

Financial planning platform Tresio has partnered with freemium open banking provider Nordigen to further enhance their financial tool via accurate, real-time data. Tresio’s partnership with Nordigen allows them to source customers’ financial data directly from their bank accounts within seconds through secure open banking APIs. Based in Zurich, Tresio seamlessly integrates with accounting, invoicing and banking systems to give entrepreneurs and finance directors a holistic, 360-degree view of all their finances in one place to enable them to make faster and better business decisions. Tresio utilises and analyses company data to provide users with detailed insights, financial analytics, liquidity forecasting…

F10, an innovation ecosystem for fintech and insurtech with hubs in Switzerland, Singapore, and Spain, announced the launch of an incubation programme dedicated to climate fintech across the Nordics and Baltics, expanding its reach within Europe. The goal is to support these promising startups by providing training, coaching and mentoring on a variety of topics to strengthen the teams, and to secure successful business and investment opportunities ahead. The programme will also provide exposure and introductions to leading organisations, banks, corporates, fintechs, advisors, and investors. It will be run six months, built around 5 masterclasses, culminating in a demo day…

Lithuania has launched a “Startupcation” program and invites foreign startups to experience the booming startup ecosystem of Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital city and main startup hub. The program grants fast-lane access to the country’s relevant business networks and hubs and provides an entry point to the European market with more than 700 million customers open to new technologies. Vilnius is home to “Vinted” and “Nord Security” – two of the country’s unicorns – and over a thousand promising startups enjoying great work and life balance in an innovation-friendly business environment with an excellently developed infrastructure and a world-class talent pool. Lithuania…

OKEO helps customers save time and money by providing access to modern and professional banking services. Mambu’s composable platform enables OKEO to offer multi-currency foreign exchange payments, at rates up to five times better than traditional institution, and delivery times ranging from minutes to maximum one business day, irrespective of the currency chosen. Founded in 2019 in Vilnius, Lithuania, OKEO is an all-in-one payments platform designed to maximise cost efficiency and empower businesses with greater control over their finances. The fintech provides fully-fledged business IBAN accounts and online banking with an intuitive interface that allows teams to manage their profiles,…

Q2 2022 was a fructuous quarter for technology startups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which closed more than EUR 2 billion in disclosed funding, a figure that’s double what was raised by CEE tech startups in the same quarter last year, a new report by Vestbee, a fundraising and deal flow platform for CEE startups, shows.In Q2 2022, fintech was one of investors’ favored sectors, accounting for 20% of the region’s 50 largest rounds of funding closed during the period. This indicates that investors are remaining bullish on the prospect of financial innovation in the region and are actively…

With more than 1,400 tech startups operating in the country, Estonia stands at the leadership position as Europe’s most vibrant startup hub in Europe. The country also has a world-class track record in building unicorns, having been the birthplace of no less than 10 billion-dollar tech firms, namely Skype, Playtech, Wise, Bolt, Pipeline, Zego, ID.me, Gelato, Veriff and Glia. Estonia’s thriving startup scene has made it an enticing location for investors. In 2021, Estonia startups raised a total of EUR 962 million, more than doubling 2020’s EUR 464 million, data from law firm Sorainen show. In 2022, it only took…

For digital nomads who travel internationally and on a regular basis, finding a banking solution that fits with their unique lifestyle can be a daunting task. Digital nomads travel the world and often live in several different countries with their own unique banking system and requirements. This means that going the traditional route would imply navigating those local banking systems, and having to endure tedious onboarding processes that require applicants to travel in-person to a branch, and present a bunch of paper documents each time. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who use traditional banking services…

Estonian-founded investment platform Lightyear announced that it has raised a US$25 million Series A equity round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company’s seed investors, Mosaic Ventures, Taavet+Sten and Metaplanet also took part in the round alongside a number of new and existing angel investors. Virgin Group had also joined in this investment round. The funds will be used to support the company’s plans to expand across Europe. The fundraise comes at the same time as Lightyear’s expands into 19 European markets, just nine months after it launched in the UK. Lightyear will be onboarding customers from these 19 European…

Payments company GoCardless announced it plans to acquire Nordigen, a Latvian open banking data provider. The deal is expected to close later in the summer. Further terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. GoCardless will incorporate Nordigen’s next-generation open banking connectivity, which connects to more than 2,300 banks in 31 countries, into its account-to-account network. The acquisition means the fintech will provide free open banking connectivity at scale, opening up self-serve access to account information services (AIS) to everyone. In addition, its suite of premium data products help improve outcomes across a range of use cases from credit assessments to…

Veriff, a global identity verification provider, announced its partnership with Twisto, a Zip-acquired buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform, to provide identity verification services for online merchants. With this partnership, Veriff expedites the identity verification process for Twisto customers, while ensuring compliance with know your customer (KYC) regulations. Veriff’s AI-powered identity verification technology is now available on Twisto’s platform, enabling consumers to quickly and seamlessly verify their identities. The company provides KYC verification with its video-first technology and offers an extra layer of protection for users through location verification. Since integrating Veriff’s technology, Twisto said that it has experienced a…

The Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for ecommerce. iDenfy’s mix of built-in identity verification and Business Verification services will protect Juni from fraud. Reduced costs, personalization, greater convenience, or speed are all factors that make ecommerce and fintech players successful in today’s digital sphere. While the benefits paint a positive picture, there’s also a riskier part to online business. According to iDenfy, cybercrime takes a toll on the fintech and ecommerce markets, making fraudsters and their crimes an issue that’s hard to tackle. Juni follows a similar approach, and…

After Lithuania gained the second unicorn, Nord Security, this spring, Vilnius, the capital, is rapidly evolving into a point of attraction for new and established businesses. In light of the booming entrepreneurial environment and the expanding unicorn community, Vilnius is making certain adjustments to its urban layout. New technology campus expected to boost the startup ecosystem As one of the top 30 emerging startup ecosystems globally, the capital’s startup scene, valued at 7B, currently encompasses 767 active startups. With around 16K specialists employed in the country’s startup ecosystem, Vilnius is aiming to expand it by building a technology campus Cyber…