Fintech Week Lithuania | Day 4 - Fintech Week Lithuania
2020-06-19

Fintech Week Lithuania | Day 4

The last day of Fintech Week Lithuania started a Fintech pitch battle. It was motivating to see what do the startup founders identify as a niche area that is poised for success. Fintech startup ideas included decentralized data storage, behavioural analytics, compensation for missed flights, and lending products, among others. The winners of the fintech pitch battle were selected as Inform Debtor and Manu Analytics – a debt management system and a behavioural profiling platform.

It is valuable that in times of uncertainty existing and to-be entrepreneurs are developing novel ideas and searching for business opportunities. The first panel of the day discussed how do startups survive the crisis, what should they do when the times are tough and accessibility to finance is more difficult – although times are always challenging for a startup. Tony Greenberg, the CEO of tech consultancy firm Ramprate from California, United States, said during the panel discussion that fundraising always consumes a tremendous amount of time, not only in times of crisis. It is extremely challenging for a company to create revenue and raise money at the same time. The advice given to startups is: ‘Spend each minute of the day so that it is optimal’.

The next panelists that included leaders of Venture Capital firms – Katalista Ventures, Maven 11 Capital and 70Ventures, as well as a digital strategy firm from New York, Clarke Global Marketing, shared similar views that funding is always available for really good solutions. In particular, today, there is plenty of money in the market and investors are looking for solid, resilient products that have not only survived the economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis but also increased in demand.

The key advice that was given to startups and companies that are experiencing difficulties not only in times of this crisis but in any crisis, is to conduct clear and honest communication with current investors, keeping them in the loop of what is going on and managing their expectations.

The last day of Fintech Week continued with long-awaited Fintech Awards, which acknowledged fintech companies that are established in Lithuania.

The winners of the 1st Lithuanian Fintech Awards:

  • Fintech startup of the year: iDenfy
  • Fintech growth story of the year: Finbee
  • Fintech for business impact of the year: Bankera
  • Company of the year in lending, investment and P2P: Neo Finance
  • Fintech innovator of the year: MANU Analytics
  • Fintech enabler of the year: Ondato
  • Company of the year in payments and digital banking: Revolut
  • Empowerment of Fintech in Lithuania: The Bank of Lithuania
  • Female executive of the year: Viktorija Vanage, Profitus
  • Fintech leader of the year: Jekaterina Govina, the Bank of Lithuania
  • Fintech leader of the year: Liudas Kanapienis, Ondato

How did Lithuania become an exceptionally attractive fintech hub, having such a solid number of fintech companies that it even holds the awards ceremony?

A Senior Investment Advisor of a governmental agency Invest Lithuania, Rugile Stonyte, told Lithuania’s fintech story to Fintech Week Lithuania audience. According to Invest Lithuania, key factors of the country’s success in fintech are due to Lithuanians being agile, innovative, cooperative, ambitious, and persistent.

Lithuania is a small country, which gives it the advantage of being quick to adopt and open for change. Some time ago, the Bank of Lithuania, which is the financial watchdog of the country, realized that it perhaps lacked innovation. It has decided to change that by increasing competition in financial services and streamlining the processes for faster Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and Payment Institution (PI) licenses issuance. Also, Lithuania has introduced CENTROlink program, which allows for fintechs to process SEPA payments directly through the Central Bank, avoiding commercial banks as intermediaries.

Today, the Bank of Lithuania and its efforts are recognized globally. The country hosts more than two hundred fintechs, that includes famous names such as Revolut, Railsbank, TransferGo, and many others. The country continues to be ambitious and sets the highest standards thriving to improve the fintech ecosystem.

Continuous improvement and education are some of the key factors for the success of the country. Lithuanians take education very seriously, are being persistent, and continuously increase talent pool with retraining programmes and funding for IT studies. Re-skilling and education for the digital age was the last topic, which has closed Fintech Week Lithuania – an indication that in order to survive and to improve, we must embark on a continuous learning process and encourage others do to the same.

 

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15 June | USA | GMT +3 /
Time
Topic
Speakers
16:00 - 16:20
WELCOME ADDRESS

Vilius Šapoka, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania
Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, Minister of Energy, Acting Minister of the Economy and Innovation 

16:20 - 16:30
OPENING

Aurimas Danielius, moderator

16:30 - 16:50
FINTECH, BLOCKCHAIN: INNOVATION, INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGULATION

Pēteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit, Digital Innovation and Blockchain @ European Commission

16:50 - 17:00
INTERVIEW WITH BANKERA, WINNER OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION #EUVSVIRUS HACKATHON

Vytautas Karalevičius, Co-founder @ Bankera

17:00 - 17:40
THE FUTURE OF FINTECH AFTER THE COVID CRISIS

Chris Skinner, Author, commentator and troublemaker

17:40 - 18:30
CHALLENGERS VS INCUMBENTS: AGILITY AND CUSTOMER ACQUISITION – WHO WON, WHO LOST?

Jean Louis Van Houwe (moderator) Founder & CEO @ Monizze, President of the Board
@ Fintech Belgium

Šarūnas Legeckas, General Manager Greater Europe @ N26

Jeffrey Alberts, Partner @ Pryor Cashman LLP

Mantas Staliūnas, CEO @ Verifo

18:30 - 18:45
INTERVIEW

Linas Beliūnas, Influencer, Country Manager, Europe @ Flutterwave

18:45 - 19:30
PANEL: WHO LEADS INNOVATION: BANKING-AS-A-SERVICE OR CUSTOMER-FACING FINTECHS?

Douglas Mackenzie (moderator) Head Series Producer & Host @ Fintech Finance
Andy Patton
, CCO @ Contis
Benjamin Ensor, Director of Research @ 11:FS
Andrius Bagdonavičius, Managing Director @ Mambu Lithuania
Erika Maslauskaitė, Chief Business Development Officer @ Inventi

19:30 - 20:30
PANEL: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPLEMENTATIONS ON BLOCKCHAIN. USE CASES AND FUTURE APPLICATIONS

George Papageorgiou (moderator), Independent Bitcoin Researcher
Konstantinos Sgantzos, Theoretical Physicist, Biochemist, Bioinformatics
Ian Grigg, Cryptographer

20:30 - 21:20
OWNING YOUR DATA

Brittany Kaiser, Activist, Founder @ Own Your Data Foundation

16 June | ASIA | GMT +3 /
Time
Topic
Speakers
11:00 - 11:03
OPENING

Aurimas Danielius, moderator

11:03 - 12:00
PANEL: DIGITAL ASSETS AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITAL MARKETS

Oz Sultan (moderator) Chief Information Officer @ PAC Global
Andrius Bartminas, CEO @ Super How?
Stephanie Brennan, CEO @ Evarvest
Dotun Rominiyi, Blockchain & Innovation Strategy @ London Stock Exchange

12:00 - 12:50
PANEL: HAS THE CRISIS HELPED COMPANIES SHIFT FROM BEING PRODUCT-CENTRIC TO CUSTOMER CENTRIC, ARE THEY READY FOR CONSUMER OF 2021?

Nick Price (moderator) CEO & Founder @ Bright Purple, Director @ Primed
Agnė Selemonaitė, Deputy CEO & Board Member @ ConnectPay
Peter Oakes, Board Director @ TransferMate Global Payments & Founder @ Fintech Ireland
Anastasija Oleinika, CEO @ TWINO Group

12:50 - 13:35
PANEL: SME AND MICRO LOANS: ENABLING THE RECOVERY

Dovilė Burgienė (moderator) Co-founder & Managing Partner @ Walless
Jarkko Mäensivu
, CEO @ Saldo Finance
Kęstutis Motiejūnas, CEO @ Invega
Audrius Griškevičius, Head of SME lending @ Finbee
Brian Reaves, CEO @ Factris

13:35 - 14:20
PANEL: PROGRAMMABLE DIGITAL EURO

Dr. Audrius Kabašinskas (moderator) Assoc. Prof. @ KTU, Council Member @ ECMI
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner, Head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center
Dr. Pavel Kravchenko, CEO & Co-founder @ Distributed Lab

14:20 - 15:20
WORKSHOP | FINTECH TRENDS: WHAT ARE VCS LOOKING AT RIGHT NOW?

Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė, Partner @ Startup Wise Guys

17 June | EUROPE | GMT +3 /
Time
Topic
Speakers
13:00 - 13:05
OPENING

Aurimas Danielius, moderator

13:05 - 14:15
FINTECH PITCH BATTLE
14:25 - 15:20
PANEL: THE MOST EXCITING COVID-19 CRISIS INNOVATIONS THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE OF FINTECHS

Paulius Tarbūnas (moderator) Head of Fintech Lithuania @ Infobalt
Douglas Mackenzie, Head Series Producer & Host @ Fintech Finance
Kęstutis Gardžiulis, Founder & CIO @ Etronika
Vytautas Karalevičius, Co-founder & Chairman of the Board @ Pervesk
Jesper Carvalho Andersen, Chairman @ GREEN EQUITY SGP

15:20 - 15:50
PANEL: AML AND KYC – NEW KING?

Alexandre Pinot (moderator) Founding Member @ ACAMS Baltic Chapter & MLRO & Head of Vilnius Office @ SONECT
Joseph Weinberg, Special Advisor @ OECD & FATF
Federica Taccogna, Senior Managing Director @ FTI Consulting
Steve Hancock, Director & Co-founder @ AML Analytics

15:50 -16:00
REFLECTION ON THE PANEL

Domantas Čiuldė, CEO @ IDenfy

16:00 - 16:50
PANEL: DRIVING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

Alex Gibb (moderator) Partner @ Katalista Ventures
Dovilė Grigienė, CEO @ Swedbank Lithuania
Keesa Schreane, Senior Executive in Financial Services, Host & Executive Producer @ Refinitiv
Otavio Lopes, Deputy Portfolio Manager @ International Finance Corporation
Jacek Kubas, Associate Director @ EBRD

16:50 - 17:50
PANEL: CYBERSECURITY: INCREASED RISKS IN THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

Živilė Nečejauskaitė (moderator) Director of Marketing and Communication @ NRD Cyber Security
May Michelson, Senior Director of Global Sales @ GK8
Malte Pollmann, CSO @ Utimaco
Thomas Kerbl, Team Lead/Principal Security Consultant @ SEC Consult Group
Dr. Rytis Rainys, Director @ National Cyber Security Center of Lithuania

17:50 - 18:35
PANEL: SCALING YOUR FINTECH IN TIME OF CRISIS: MISSION (IM)POSSIBLE?

Ieva Paulauskienė (moderator) Investment Advisor for Fintech @ Invest Lithuania
Nigel Verdon
, CEO @ Railsbank
Sigutė Kuncevičiūtė, CEO @ SumUp EU Payments
Stefano Vaccino, CEO @ Yapily

18 June | USA | GMT +3 /
Time
Topic
Speakers
15:00 - 15:05
OPENING

Aurimas Danielius, moderator

15:05 - 16:15
FINTECH PITCH BATTLE
16:15 - 16:50
PANEL: SURVIVING CRISIS: BEST PRACTISES AND TIPS FOR STARTUPS

Vytautas Černiauskas (moderator) Expert at Civitta/Startup Division
Jean-Baptiste (JB) Daguené
, Partner @ 70Ventures
Tony Greenberg, CEO & Founder @ RampRate

16:50 - 17:40
PANEL: NEW VALUATIONS: FUNDRAISING AND BUSINESS FINANCING DURING AND AFTER COVID-19 CRISIS

Alex Gibb (moderator) Partner at Katalista Ventures
Gytenis Galkis, Partner & Licensed Unicorn Hunter at 70Ventures
Kadeem Clarke, Founder of Clarke Global Marketing
Balder Bomans, CIO @ Maven 11 Capital

17:40 - 17:50
BREAK
17:50 - 18:45
LITHUANIAN FINTECH AWARDS
18:45 - 19:10
HOW LITHUANIA BECAME A MAJOR FINTECH HUB?

Rugilė Stonytė, Senior Investment Advisor for Fintech @ Invest Lithuania

19:10 - 19:55
PANEL: RE-SKILLING & CONTINUOUS EDUCATION FOR DIGITAL AGE

Inga Karulaitytė (moderator) Partner @ ECOVIS ProventusLaw
Shilpa Arora
, AML Director for the EMEA @ ACAMS
Dr. Saulius Masteika, Assoc. Professor of Computational Finance & Chair of Fintech study program @ Vilnius University
Dr. Marius Laurinaitis, Associate Professor @ Mykolas Romeris University
Prof. Marinos Themistocleous, Associate Dean, School of Business, Director Institute For the Future