Estonian crypto platform Kriptomat has partnered with UK payment gateway provider Volt to enable customers to make real-time account-to-account payments to buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies. Prior to integrating with Volt, Kriptomat customers used bank transfers, credit cards and e-wallets for transactions which meant that funds could take three to five business days to reach accounts. With Volt, Kriptomat users will be directed to their banking app where they can authorise payments to transfer and access funds in real-time. Founded in 2018 in Tallinn, Kriptomat has a customer base of over 500,000 users, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe. The…

Estonian cross border lending platform Mifundo has raised €1.2 million in pre-seed funding led by Opus11 VC, with angel investors LHV Bank’s Jüri Laur and Iizi Kindlustusmaakler’s Kaido Kepp. Mifundo aims to build a platform to enable people to apply for loans from banks across the European Union and is building an AI-based solution that treats the bloc as a single credit market. The platform is being developed with scientists from the University of Tartu, with the support of the European Regional Development Fund and EAS. Mifundo is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, and was founded in 2018 by the former…

London-based investing app Lightyear has launched business accounts in Estonia to enable freelancers and small business owners to invest in the global stock market. Estonian businesses will be able to invest in stocks and ETFs from the US and Europe through their Lightyear business accounts. Investments in Euro markets are free, while a fixed fee is charged for other markets. According to Lightyear, gains from investments on its business accounts will only be taxed when they are withdrawn from the account or distributed as dividends since investment income in Estonia is taxed in the same way as normal business income.…

Lithuanian payment processor Paysera has partnered with payments infrastructure platform Airwallex to enable its clients to send money to 149 countries and open IBAN accounts of 9 countries. Paysera is a licensed e-money institution providing payment gateways, currency conversion, payment cards, an event ticketing platform, a parcel locker network, and a finance management app. The company also announced in mid-2021 that it has partnered with German neobank N26 to offer its payment processing services in 18 European countries. Founded in 2004 in Vilnius, Paysera has one million app installs and generated EUR 13 million in revenue in 2020. The company…

The Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority or Finantsinspektsioon has granted TINV Europe, a part of the Wise group which provides online money transfer service, a license to provide investment and ancillary services in the country. Wise is now allowed to accept securities orders and send them, execute securities orders in the name of clients or in its own name, and trade with securities on its own account. The company can also hold and manage the securities of clients, and provide services relating to foreign exchange if they are linked to the provision of investment services. Wise says that it hopes to…

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…