Pavel Uhniavionak

Lithuanian startup Softloans raised a $1 million pre-seed from FIRSTPICK to boost the loan approval in Lithuania. Lithuanian startup #Softloans has just secured a significant €1 million pre-seed investment round led by #FIRSTPICK. Founded in 2022 by Audrius Griskevicius, Edmundas Kevisas, and Aleksandras Kunickas, Softloans is on a mission to revolutionize financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Their platform offers a suite of financing tools, from data collection to risk assessment, aimed at facilitating revenue-based lending for web-based merchants and digital service providers. With the aim to bridge the gap between global e-commerce giants and SMEs, Softloans' innovative approach to embedded financing allows businesses to easily access loans through the digital platforms they already use for their operations. This means quick and accurate risk assessment for e-shops, followed by automated monitoring and repayment processes. In just two years, Softloans has already amassed around 1,000 corporate clients spanning across Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Finland, and Poland. Their rapid growth underscores the demand for accessible financing solutions in the digital marketplace. FIRSTPICK, the lead investor in this round, is a prominent #VC fund and accelerator specializing in early-stage tech startups across the Baltics. With a focus on #fintech, SaaS, deeptech, and consumer marketplaces, FIRSTPICK boasts a diverse portfolio of successful ventures. Their willingness to invest up to €1 million in a single company through follow-on rounds speaks to their confidence in Softloans' potential. This investment not only validates Softloans' innovative approach but also paves the way for further expansion and development. As they continue to empower SMEs with accessible financing solutions, Softloans is poised to make a significant impact in the global digital economy. The article on Vestbee in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://t.ly/s541W   - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

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Here’s the roadmap that will shape the future of Lithuania's #Fintech sector over the next four years: 1. Promotion of Qualitative Development: driving the growth and excellence of the Fintech sector in Lithuania. 2. Attraction of Innovative Fintech Solutions: attracting and nurturing innovative Fintech solutions, positioning Lithuania as a hub for cutting-edge technological advancements in the industry. 3. Talent Attraction: drawing fintech talents and international institutions to Lithuania, solidifying Lithuania's position as a recognized expertise and competence center, that fosters a vibrant ecosystem. 4. Enhanced Risk Management: empowering companies to mature and facilitating collaboration and information exchange for a resilient fintech landscape. 5. International Recognition: celebrating Lithuania's international acclaim as a leading European Fintech center, cementing its reputation on the global stage. Yesterday marked not only the opportunity to meet with all key stakeholders that shape the financial sector, but also the opportunity to notice and reflect on the changes already happening and gaining momentum. Thank you Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania for organizing this, and to everyone including Invest Lithuania, Innovation Agency Lithuania | Global, ROCKIT Vilnius, Lietuvos bankas | Bank of Lithuania Ekonomikos ir inovacijų ministerija, Finansinių nusikaltimų tyrimo tarnyba (FNTT), Go Vilnius for shaping Lithuania's Fintech Strategy and for making this happen!

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🚀Amazing news for the Fintech & Insurtech Association of Slovakia (FINAS)! 👏We have the pleasure to welcome our new member to the FINAS association – Cequence! 👉About Cequence Cequence is a sophisticated software tool for efficient contract management and related processes. With our solution, you can transform complex, manual tasks associated with creating, negotiating, and finalizing contracts into meaningful, automated processes. This saves thousands of hours annually that would otherwise be spent on manual administrative tasks like searching for or transcribing information from documents. 👉Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/d2HZ6ehn https://cequence.io/sk Matej Sedlák #finas #fintech #grow #member #newmember #community #cequence #network #leader #bratislava #slovakia #crypto #bitcoin #blockchain #finance #insurtech

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Have you got a chance to get familiar with NATEK CEE IT Market Report 2024?🧐 This comprehensive source of information on the current and future state of the IT industry in the Central Eastern Europe is available for your use and includes data on topics such as: 🔸Macroeconomic data showcasing the advantages of investing in the CEE region; 🔸An overview of the IT market with insights into trends, education, and the outsourcing landscape; 🔸Effective recruitment practices, complete with data on IT specialists' remuneration rates; 🔸Business operating costs in the region and an analysis of the office market 🔸 And so much more! Our Report is a showcase of #NATEK position as one of the Leaders in the Outsourcing IT world, where we've been constantly growing, evolving and innovating for the past 20 years🚀 We wanted to share our view on the prospects for IT market, by dissecting the available data and reaching out to our Business Partners MARKUS K., Stanislav Petrov, Christophe Paris, Karolina Strzępek, Viktor Mitruk, Bianka Siwinska, Adriana Binkiewicz, Martin Albrecht, and Kurimsky Andrej to see this issue with their eyes and broaden our awareness on the matter💡 Once again, thank you so much for your invaluable input!🙌 Read our article, which contains a summary of the most important findings from the mentioned studies and be up-to-date with the newest information about CEE IT Market. And don't forget to download the full version of the report to get ahead of your competition🔥 Details are available under this link: https://lnkd.in/dheeSBx6 Enjoy the reading! Do you have any questions about cooperation with NATEK Team? Use our contact form at https://natek.eu/contact and #workITwithus!

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Exciting update! 🚀 BADideas.fund has joined the Fintech Latvia Association 's growing network of partners dedicated to helping fintech companies thrive! With their expertise and funding, we’re even better positioned to foster innovation and growth in the fintech sector. Together, we’ll continue to create opportunities for Latvian fintechs to scale and succeed. 🙌 BADideas.fund is an angel investor syndicate of 200+ investors (and growing) actively investing €50-€150K tickets in B2B SaaS startups & marketplaces across CEE. They are gearing up to launch their first €20M fund with the estimated launch date: Q1 2025. Looking forward to what’s ahead! #Fintech #Partnerships #Innovation #Growth #BADIdeasFund #FintechLatvia #VC

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Ending this week with great news for SaaS founders!🎉 Whether you are billing in EUR, CZK or PLN Tapline Platform supports you with non-dilutive capital. 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇨🇿🇩🇪 Here's for European, Polish and Czech Republic SaaS founders, we are committed to being your long-term partners through your SaaS financing journey. 🚀 Learn more about Tapline ➡ Tapline.io #saasgrowth #financing #europe #czechrepublic #poland #germany

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New Work! Äripäev is an Estonian business-orientated publishing house that's been around since 1989. Main and most trusted business magazine/portal in Estonia. As with any project, big or small, we started with several face-to-face meetings with the client’s team to better understand their business and technical needs. Then we took time to reach out to current and potential Äripäev content consumers for interviews. By doing this we would get insights into how they use Äripäev in their day-to-day and work towards an experience that better caters to their needs. A deliberate UX/UI design decision was to not change too much – at least visually – so that existing users wouldn’t all of a sudden get confused and lost. What we did set out to do, however, was to vastly improve the typography and legibility of articles. Another challenge that we tackled, was to showcase and accommodate Äripäev’s “sibling-websites” in the main menu since this was lacking in the previous version of the website. The same navigation and content UI logic we defined is reused throughout all these websites. This was made easy by the using of scalable components which – by allowing dynamic changes – give the flexibility and reusability needed for the editors of the respective websites. This way the layout and design system logic enables the editors to focus on the content creation without having to worry about technical hurdles. Cheers to the client for a great collaboration and getting into the minute details with us! https://www.aripaev.ee/ #webdesign #uxdesign #uidesign #newspaper #business

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During our May Pitch event we had more startups than usually - six startups from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia presented their ideas and got a lot of questions from LitBAN members. Startups were not only from different countries, but also from very different sectors: furniture industry, hospitality, business software, wine investing and even - lasers! If you're interested in startups and angel investment and would like to join our community, contact us. If you're a startup founder, looking for investment, apply at LitBAN's web page. Links in the comment. #businessangels #startups #investments

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We're excited to announce our collaboration with EY and Fundacja Bezpieczna Cyberprzestrzeń to enhance cyber resilience for financial institutions at Cyber EXE Poland! Using SimSpace’s high-fidelity cyber range, we empowered leading banks to test their detection and reporting capabilities in line with DORA regulations. This initiative showcased the power of collaboration in strengthening cybersecurity defenses and preparing for real-world threats. #CyberSecurity #FinancialServices #DORA #CyberResilience #CyberEXEPoland https://hubs.la/Q02VJpdM0

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The 16th FinTech & InsurTech Digital Congress is happening next week! Krzysztof Gozdz, Sales Manager at Secfense, will be there to share a compelling case study on enhancing digital account security and minimizing cyber risks. This is your chance to dive deeper into: ✅ Cutting-edge solutions for the banking and insurance sectors ✅ How passkeys are shaping a passwordless future ✅ Meeting PSD2 and DORA compliance with Secfense technology Prepare your questions and join the conversation!

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🏆 For the seventh year, companies with the most transparent and fair wage policies are being  honored with the "Equal Pay" Award. This year’s winners in Lithuania include Premier Restaurants and Accenture Lithuania. 💬 Povilas B., compensation expert at Figure Baltic Advisory, notes: “While meeting the criteria is challenging for some, especially in traditional sectors, companies from energy, media, and food services are among the top this year.” 📊 In the small and medium business category (up to 500 employees), Accenture Lithuania claimed the top spot, followed by Elektrum Lietuva, Novameta, COWI Lietuva, and Visma Tech Lietuva. In the large employer category (over 500 employees), Premier Restaurants secured the highest ranking for the second consecutive year, followed by LRT, SEB, Danske Bank, and Swedbank Lietuvoje. Congrats to all winners! 👏 #EqualPay #FigureBalticAdvisory #Figure #FigureOut

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Next stop: Latvia! The Latvia Fintech Forum is happening on November 5th, 2024 and BankingLab is thrilled to be part of it. Latvia’s FinTech scene is undoubtedly one of the most promising on Europe’s innovation landscape. Let’s meet up! 🚀 #banking #corebanking #fintech

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On average, Poles make 1.5 million #BLIK phone transfers a day! 🚀📈 In the first half of 2024 our users made 132 m of such transactions. We have reached in this field 55 percent growth YoY. 📈 Moreover, the value of mobile phone transfers amounted to 282.7 billion PLN [66.1 bn EUR]. The average transaction was 153 PLN [35 EUR]. 💲 You can find more info here: https://lnkd.in/dbsncWhA #transfers #P2P #transactions

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📊 IT Salaries in Poland 2024: Key Trends The IT sector in Poland is bouncing back, with demand shifting from traditional programming to fields like data analysis and cybersecurity. Curious about what’s driving these changes? 🔍 https://lnkd.in/dYA36KQj #FOCUSONBusiness #ProProgressio #Derive #ITSalaryReport2024 #IT

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🇱🇻 Latvian local investors have spoken! Here are their 6 most promising startups for 2024 👇 🦄 Swotzy 🦄 Supliful 🦄 Trace.Space 🦄 Sorsera 🦄 Finfra 🦄 Salesforge 🔥 What promising startups in Latvia have you 👀 noticed? Share your favorites in the comments. #FIRSTPICK #startups

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Today AIM Invest has been granted financial brokerage company license by Lietuvos bankas | Bank of Lithuania 😊 It's a BIG day for a SMALL company's GROWTH acceleration 💪 Soon we'll be ready to provide prudent portfolio management, wise investment advise and other investment services to grow your wealth. Many thanks to Karolina Lapinskaitė and many others from TGS Baltic for the full support on this challenging journey 👍 #portfoliomanagement #investments #brokerage

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“Traditional banking relationships are mostly transactional – banks prioritize interest rates and revenue. Fintechs tend to be more focused on building products from the ground up to meet exact customer needs,” according to Mihails Kuznecovs, CEO of FINCI.    FINCI is a fintech startup from Lithuania that now serves customers in over 30 countries including SMEs, commercial organizations, and large corporates that have long been underserved by traditional banks.   FINCI went live with Temenos in just 4 months and has grown quickly ever since. The volume of #payments processed by FINCI has increased 100% year-on-year, while card transactions have increased by 50%.   Learn more about how FINCI is innovating in #SMEbanking with Temenos here: https://lnkd.in/gece83ku #VoiceOfCustomer

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📢 Calling all aspiring and existing Angel Investors! Did you miss the deadline to apply for our Angel Investing Training Programme? We have good news! We still have 3 openings available in Poland, Czechia, and Hungary. This is an exclusive and free training opportunity that offers you access to the skills, experience, and insights of leading players from Europe's most developed Angel Investment markets. 🚀 For more information, visit ESIL website: http://www.europeanesil.eu 📌 Apply for the trainings here: https://bit.ly/4bLZ2PK #NextGenAngels #AngelInvestment #ESILInitiative

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Unique Opportunity for Angel Investors! 🌟 Don't miss out! There are 3 spots left in Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary for a free Angel Investing Training Program from ESIL. Gain insights from Europe's top Angel Investors and enhance your investment skills. 👉 More info: http://www.europeanesil.eu 📌 Sign up: https://bit.ly/4bLZ2PK Join the next generation of Angel Investors! 🚀 #NextGenAngels #AngelInvestment #ESILInitiative

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