Estonian Fundvest to launch a new smart investment app in the Baltics

The pan-Baltic investment brokerage firm Fundvest has just announced its plan to release a new investment app in Lithuania and open an office in Vilnius. The company is looking to shake up the brokerage market, offering access to EU and US stock exchanges with transparent pricing. The new Vilnius office will be covering customer service, software development, back-end, hosting services, UI design, KYC/AML, Compliance, and other functions. 

Fundvest co-founders Rasmus Klaassen, Sander Siim Vaher, Egon Orav, Martins Untals and Ottomar Paeväli all have years of experience in the banking and fintech scene. To release the new app, Fundvest first had to secure funding and a brokerage licence. 

According to Rasmus Klaassen, director of Fundvest, their choice for licensing jurisdiction was obvious as Vilnius is a vibrant European fintech innovation hub.

“Supportive regulatory policy with an emphasis on innovation, as well as focus on developing a highly-skilled talent pool, makes Lithuania a strong location for fintech investment. It’s great to see innovators like Fundvest recognize the country as a perfect environment for their business model,” says Elijus Čivilis, General Manager of Invest Lithuania.

Fundvest now holds a Category B financial brokerage licence from the Bank of Lithuania and is in the last stages of building its mobile platform. Fundvest asserts that because European consumers primarily choose bank deposits with low or no interest over investment opportunities, they have missed out on a potential 2.9 trillion of compound gain on their asset value over the last ten years. At the same time, according to the company, traditional banks lack a modern user-centric approach and charge unreasonably high fees. Fundvest tackles these issues by offering access to EU and US stock exchanges and transparent pricing, as commission fees are only tied to activity. 

After the platform goes live in Lithuania, Fundvest will be working to cover other Baltic countries and then plan to continue expanding the investment services throughout the European Union. 

“We are eager to start our active operations and offer our product to the Lithuanian market. Especially when the Lithuanian government has expressed support and pointed out the need for innovative solutions which we think is exactly what we offer, ” says R.Klaassen referring to the latest Bank of Lithuania consultation document regarding capital market development. It states that a tax-deferred investment account is seen as one of the solutions to increase the demand for investment products.

Fundvest also cites the Lithuanian talent pool, with its dedication, competence, and skills, as a critical reason for deciding to be a Lithuania-based fintech. In addition, the company notes the importance of being actively involved in new talent development and aims to open internship programs in their Vilnius office in the summer of 2022.