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…

Today, the Dutch financial technology (Fintech) company Hyarchis announced that it is expanding and opening a new office in Vilnius. The company’s first Lithuanian branch has been operating in Kaunas since 2018. The office in the capital will serve as a new product development center, with the primary goal of providing cloud-based document and data management solutions for the financial sector. Hyarchis intends to hire more than 20 specialists over the next three years. Hyarchis develops document and data management software for the financial sector. The company’s products are used by more than 55,000 customers across Europe. Kaunas currently has…

AS Air Baltic Corporation (airBaltic), the flag carrier of Latvia, has released the “airBaltic Planies NFTs”, an artwork of 10 000 unique airplane cartoon images. Holders of the Planies NFTs will be able to receive airBaltic Club points and other loyalty program benefits. In order to get the airBaltic Planies NFTs, users will need to set up a MetaMask wallet and buy Ethereum (ETH) currency with MoonPay. They will need to have 300$ (~0.15eth) + gas transaction (gas price changes depending on the load of chain) in your wallet account. Following that, they can visit the Planies website and register for…

On 7–9 June, Europe’s largest Fintech conference will bring together the world’s most successful Fintech representatives and investors. This time they will be joined by a large team from Lithuania. For the first time, “Money 20/20” will mobilise and co-present Lithuania’s Fintech community − startups, associations, and institutions. At the event and expo in Amsterdam, under the name “LITHUANIA” will be presented Invest Lithuania, ROCKIT, Go Vilnius, Fintech Hub LT, EMBank, Fininbox, Ondato and Velmie. Also more than 100 representatives from 25 Lithuanian Fintech companies will also travel to attend the conference. “Money 20/20” is supported by Fintech industry players…

As the fintech sector continues to evolve in Lithuania, a growing number of women in leadership roles are helping propel the country’s most promising and fastest-growing fintech startups ahead in exciting new directions. We’ve curated a list of 10 of the most influential women fintech founders, leaders and venture capitalists (VCs) reshaping the Lithuanian financial landscape, recognizing them for their expertise, drive and leadership. Jekaterina Govina, Partner, Response Legal Jekaterina Govina is a partner at Response Legal, a Lithuanian law firm. At Response Legal, she specializes in fintech, startups and financial services regulation. Prior to joining the law firm, Govia…

DriveWealth, a global embedded finance pioneer that powers equity investing for fintechs,  announced the opening of its first international entity to serve the European market. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, the new DriveWealth Lithuania subsidiary will create innovative new partnerships with traditional financial service providers, DeFi companies, and startups to help give individuals worldwide more control over their financial lives. “The ability to easily scale with our partners and bring impactful wealth-creation opportunities to forward-thinking platforms around the world is a large part of why DriveWealth is different. So many Baltic and European Union platforms are looking for smarter ways to…

XREX, a Taiwanese blockchain Fintech company, has chosen Lithuania as its entry point to the EU market. After recently becoming a crypto asset service provider in Lithuania, the company plans to entrust operations, AML, and other functions to its Lithuanian office. Taipei-headquartered XREX has developed a series of blockchain-driven products, including BitCheck, an online escrow service, and XREX Exchange, the world’s only crypto-fiat exchange that supports both the US dollar and the Indian rupee. Co-founded by cybersecurity expert Dr. Wayne Huang and serial entrepreneur Winston Hsiao, XREX aims to build long-lasting bridges between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Raising…

Paystrax, a payment processing solutions provider, is planning to expand its team in Lithuania. With offices in Vilnius, Klaipėda, Reykjavik in Iceland, and Brighton in the UK, the company is looking to double its current 30-strong team in Lithuania over the next 12 months. “We have assembled a group of professionals with excellent knowledge of the environment that payment companies like Paystrax operate in. Our team has made a great start, and Paystrax is now ready to grow further,” says the company’s co-founder and CEO Johannes Kolbeinsson. Having developed successful Fintech ventures in Iceland, Paystrax co-founders chose Lithuania to establish…

The Bank of Lithuania has entrusted development issues to a specialised Centre for Financial Market Development in order to promote the continued successful growth of the country’s financial market. It will look for ways to strengthen the existing financial market participants and attract new ones, promote sustainable fintech development, implement capital market development measures. “Our country is known as one of the main fintech hubs in Europe. We want to go further and to boost the growth of the entire financial sector by increasing competition, access to services and strengthening the capital market, thereby creating high added value for our…

2021 was a record breaking year for the Baltic States’ startup landscape with a total of EUR 1.6 billion in capital raised, an amount that’s nearly three times the sum secured by the region’s startups in 2020, data from local seed stage venture capital (VC) fund Change Ventures show. The surge showcases a maturing startup ecosystem in the Baltics with growth rounds growing healthily and A rounds doubling versus the prior half year. Now, in 2022, it appears that the momentum is continuing, with Baltic startups, notably those in the fintech sector, securing significant rounds of funding to support their…

In the Baltic region, Estonia is emerging as a fintech powerhouse, having minted the most fintech unicorns and being home to the largest number of fintech minicorns, or startups on the rise to becoming billion dollar companies. A new infographic shared by Audrius Milukas, a venture capital (VC) investor at Open Circle Capital (OCC), showcases the Baltics’ booming tech startup ecosystem, putting the spotlight on the unicorns and minicorns that each country of the region has seen emerged over the years. Of the 13 startup unicorns founded by Baltic entrepreneurs and/or based in the region, three are fintech companies of…

Tink, Europe’s leading open banking platform, has announced the expansion of its open banking payments services to five new markets across Europe. Its Payment Initiation Services (PIS) product is now live in the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, Finland and Latvia. Tink operates in 18 markets in total across Europe, connecting to over 250 million bank customers. Open banking payments, often called Pay by Bank, is a transfer of money from one bank account to another. The payment is initiated by Tink through an Application Programming Interface (API), but the user journey is completely embedded within the payment service provider (PSP) or…

Five payment acceptance startups were among the 15 selected to meet Mastercard in the Lighthouse FINITIV programme. Since its launch in 2018, Lighthouse FINITIV has created a forum for selected startups to enter partnership discussions with Mastercard and its largest Nordic and Baltic partner banks. This spring, the programme returns to Denmark, Norway and Lithuania, where once again “acceptance startups,” or startups focused on helping merchants accept payments, stood out as the most prominent theme. Since the programme’s founding, about 22 participating startups (18% of the 120 total companies admitted) have focused on payment acceptance, with the rest focusing on…

The Baltic states, namely Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, have seen the growth of a vibrant startup ecosystem over the past years. Today, the region is home to over 5,000 startups and scaleups, according to Dealroom, including 12 unicorns. To showcase the region’s hottest startups and most promising innovations, a number of large scale events are being organized in the Baltics each year. Today, we look at the top six upcoming fintech events taking place in the coming months in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. These events are mostly focused on the broader tech scene, but with fintech taking such a big…

2021 was a successful year for Lithuania’s fintech industry with record funding volumes, an expanding startup ecosystem, and strong revenue growth for companies in the sector. The momentum is set to continue this year on ward, a new report says. This year’s Fintech Landscape in Lithuania, an annual report produced by the country’s investment promotion agency, Invest Lithuania, looks at the state of the country’s fintech ecosystem, sharing key growth metrics and emerging trends. According to the 2021-2022 study, fintech companies in Lithuania raised a record of EUR 65 million last year, representing more than four times what was raised…

In an effort to support Ukrainians fleeing the conflict, Incharge, a company built using Intergiro’s Banking as a Service solution “Intergiro.3d”, has created a banking services app specifically for refugees. The app will offer free banking services and physical or virtual debit cards to all Ukrainian nationals fleeing the country following the Russian invasion. The app was released exactly one month after the invasion began, which has now resulted in over 3.7 million people seeking refuge in bordering countries, with limited possessions and documentation. These refugees who require access to banking and financial services to buy essential goods, pay bills,…

Lunar, Nordic-based fintech company focused on the future of money for consumers and businesses, announced a €70 million Series D-2 funding round. It brings the Series D total to €280 million. Existing investors participated in the funding round following on the heels of last year’s Series D led by Heartland alongside Kinnevik, Tencent and IDC Ventures. Ken Villum Klausen, founder and CEO of Lunar, said: “We are grateful for the dedication and trust our investors have in Lunar and we will continue to invest in new ways to give more power to consumers and businesses. The new funding will enable…

BENKER, developed by BEM Europe that is headquartered in Lithuania, has been officially licensed to be what has been touted as the first blockchain neobank in Europe. Receiving the approval from the Bank of Lithuania on January 13, 2022 to operate as an Electronic Money Institution, BENKER said that is the first financial services provider in the European Union to operate entirely based on blockchain. The neobank will run on NATRIX, a hybrid blockchain designed for the financial sector. BENKER added that the service will not require any additional efforts from clients and meets all GDPR, bank privacy, and regulatory…

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…