Today, Fintech Week Lithuania hosted the Fintech Pitch battle with judges from Rockit, 70 Ventures, Startup Wise Guys and Baltic Sanbox, who listened to and selected most promising fintech propositions in four categories – Fantastic pivot, winning partnership, growth during crisis and solutions that conquered the new markets.
Winners received several prizes – “Cloud Booster” 5000 USD free AWS service credits, ‘workation week’ at Lighthouse coworking co-living space in Klaipėda, Fast-Track to Startup Wise Guys bootcamp and Fast-Track Warrior to Baltic Sandbox bootcamp. Raison A.I. received AWS credits along with Baltic Sandbox Fast-Track access. Third prize – ‘workation’ week in one of the coolest places in the seaside of Lithuania at Lighthouse co-working and co-living space in Klaipeda, winner is Oval.
The first panel of Fintech Week Lithuania Day three explored what are the most exciting Covid- 19 crisis innovations that will shape the future of fintechs. In general, the panellists agreed that the fintech industry was more ready for the crisis than other industries, especially from customer side- fintech products are digital already. What has changed for fintechs significantly was remote work of the fintechs’ teams, which brought to attention cybersecurity innovation need for secure communication infrastructure.
It was covered that from Anti Money Laundering/Know Your Customer (AML/KYC) point of view, the current environment that we live in is very risky, financial system is abused by organised crime. While we have systems for transaction monitoring, for PEP identifications, there is a lack of knowledge why these systems have been put in place, how should they operate, therefore, they are not efficient. AML/KYC is what differentiates the traditional firms with fintechs. This is what makes fintech a fintech. Like in a bank, you must go to a branch physically to open the account etc., AML/KYC is the essence of fintechs, a ‚King ‘. However, AML/KYC can be a good King or bad King, it can be enabler or the road blocker. Therefore, we should do things in smarter way, be more efficient with resources. Fintechs have great opportunity, because they have all the technology available to them. The question is – how do we use technology to build things that we have never been able to build before.
Sustainable Development Goals can be only be achieved with the help of financial markets – this is what panellists spoke about during the Sustainable Finance panel at the Fintech Week Lithuania. Consumer awareness and interest in sustainable finance is increasing and is expected to do so in the future. What is important to think of is how to measure the impact of green investments. An opportunity for fintechs?
We have concluded that Covid_19 crisis has fast-forwarded the digitalization of our lives, together increasing the cybersecurity risks. Fintech is particularly affected, and cybersecurity should be among the top priorities for companies in this digital world: concluded panellists discussing another important topic during Fintech Week Lithuania.
