Lithuanian Fintech Awards - Fintech Week Lithuania
2020-06-30

Lithuanian Fintech Awards

Fintech Week Lithuania, which took place online on 15-18 June 2020 has culminated with the first-ever Lithuanian Fintech Awards. For a country, that is considered to be a leading fintech hub in Europe, and globally, it is a significant milestone, and, perhaps a new-born tradition?

The global fintech market is expected to grow at an annual rate of nearly 25% through 2022, reaching over $300 bn in market value. It is the industry that is anticipated to completely redefine our habits that relate to daily financial needs, savings, investment and borrowing. Lithuania, being among the leading fintech hubs in the World, hosts a substantial range of fintechs that are setting out the foundations for the fintech industry.

The 1st Lithuanian Fintech Awards were open in ten different categories, from ‘Company of the year in lending, investment & P2P’ to ‘Female executive of the year’.

The 1st Lithuanian Fintech Awards selected two key Fintech leaders of the year: Liudas Kanapienis and Jekaterina Govina. Liudas Kanapienis is a co-founder and CEO of Ondato – a client onboarding platform that helps fintechs to comply with Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML/KYC) requirements. Being compliant to a well-regulated infrastructure, that is set out by the Bank of Lithuania in the country, is crucial to being a successful fintech in Lithuania. The compliance of fintech companies is being taken seriously, and a lot of work has been done by Jekaterina Govina, who is the Executive Director of Supervision Service at the Bank of Lithuania. She has been instrumental in developing regulations for fintechs. She is now initiating changes to innovate and smoothen the processes further, as well as improve Bank of Lithuania’s AML competence by establishing an AML excellence Centre.

Ondato, which is led by Liudas Kanapienis, has won the ‘Fintech Enabler of the Year’ award. The title suits the winner well, considering the importance that compliance and customer onboarding procedures take place in the world of fintech. Ondato provides a complete compliance management suite with regards to KYC procedures: it has a photo, live video identity verification, data monitoring, screening, due diligence, risk scoring and case management. Ondato offers simple integration in up to one week, avoiding complex contracts and system adjustments.

It is clear that complying to regulations for user onboarding is being taken seriously as more companies choose this as a business model that is necessary for the market. ‘The Fintech Startup of the Year’ was selected as iDenfy- a user verification and onboarding system for fintechs. iDenfy allows users to scan their IDs using smartphone cameras and use biometric verification to verify their accounts and charges fintechs per successful verification. The company plans to develop new fraud prevention and detection systems and expand to global markets.

Finbee, a peer-to-peer lending platform, was selected as the Fintech Growth Story of the Year. The company lends to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is likely to have a positive impact on its business due to the Covid-19 crisis, as businesses seek financing. Finbee connects small companies that are overlooked by banks and need finance to grow, with investors who want to lend to them and earn a return. Finbee is the first and most active crowdfunding platform in Lithuania, serving thousands of retail, institutional investors and SMEs.

The largest peer-to-peer lending platform in Lithuania, NEO Finance, has won the ‘Company of the Year in Lending, Investment & P2P’. The company’s activities are subject to an unlimited electronic money institution (EMI) license issued by the Bank of Lithuania, which allows operations in the mutual lending (P2P) and consumer credit markets throughout the European Union. NEO Finance is listed on the Nasdaq Baltic First North stock market and has a branch in the Netherlands.

Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fintech solutions seem to be a promising area, bringing success not only for the users but also for their leaders. The fintech ‘Female Executive of the Year’ title went to Viktorija Vanage, who is a co-founder and CEO of Profitus, a property-backed investment platform. Progressively growing her career in real estate, she had founded her first real estate company in 2011, and now is successfully leading Profitus. Among her plans is to start real estate crowdfunding activities in 2- 4 foreign countries.

What is Lithuania without Revolut: perhaps everyone that has a minor interest in fintech knows that Revolut has a strong base in Lithuania. At the 1st Lithuania Fintech Awards, Revolut has won the ‘Company of the Year in Payments & Digital Banking’ title. In 2020, Revolut has operationalized its first banking license in the country and are planning to launch more banking services, spreading them across the European Union afterwards. Among the plans is to offer consumer lending services, including consumer loans and credit cards, while strengthening core retail and business offerings.

Another alternative to traditional banks, Bankera, was selected as ‘Fintech for Business Impact of the year’ category winner. Bankera provides business accounts, SEPA and SWIFT and payment processing solutions and a card, together with multi-currency support. Bankera’s customers come from digital industries such as affiliate marketing, eCommerce, gaming, cryptocurrency exchanges, P2P finance and others. This year, Bankera was the winner of the competition organized by the European Commission to find the best solution for short-term SME financing.

‘The Fintech Innovator of the Year’ award went to MANU – a behavioural analytics company, that tracks behavioural data of a person while it fills in the verification applications online. According to MANU, every customer leaves specific marks while applying for services and filling applications and MANU turns these marks into behavioural profiles. MANU’s product uses a data-driven machine learning model to analyze customers based on personality traits, social identity and even emotional state, in which a customer was during the application process.

Lithuanian Fintech Awards were the cherry on the Fintech Week Lithuania’s cake, which gathered most influential fintech leaders and companies online over a period of four days.

It is great to see that a country of barely three million people, Lithuania, has found a clear direction in which it accelerates and shows international leadership. No doubt that this is only the beginning for Lithuania. The country has already gathered substantial experience in the fintech industry and is setting groundwork standards for fintech ecosystem globally.

The Bank of Lithuania did challenging work in terms of merging the existing and forward-looking regulations that would be suitable for the modern-day financial infrastructure. It is inspiring that mutual work among the stakeholders of the ecosystem has encouraged leaders of fintech and the development of business ideas. Great future awaits for those who are the first to recognize opportunities, and Lithuania has done precisely that.

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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