Fast-growing payments startup SumUp opens an office in Vilnius

With a global vision of empowering the small merchants to succeed in doing what they love and to grow their businesses, SumUp has been growing at an incredibly healthy rate of circa 100% every year. The company now operates in 31 markets across Europe, Brazil and the US. The new Lithuanian office will play an important role in SumUp’s future growth with Baltic states business development. The company plans to hire over 30 employees in Lithuania in the next three years.

SumUp was established in London in 2012 with an idea of introducing a different kind of card acceptance services for small merchants, from Lithuanian craftsman to the babysitter in Brazil, who have been historically underserved by the traditional payment providers. For many such businesses, the bureaucratic hurdles and the cost of payment hardware made it near-to-impossible to offer card payments to its clients. SumUp’s proprietary technology and innovative approach have made it possible for the smallest businesses to start accepting card payments.

Planning on further expansion, the company has been looking at a number of European states. According to Sigutė Kuncevičiūtė, CEO Lithuania at SumUp, innovative and tech friendly business environment, as well as continued support from governmental sector were main factors in choosing Lithuania.

“The main criteria for selecting a new location were innovation and fintech friendliness of the country, talent pool for recruiting and governmental support. We found everything here in Lithuania”, says Sigutė Kuncevičiūtė.

SumUp has just been granted electronic money license by Bank of Lithuania and expects to grow the Lithuania office and is looking to hire across all functions. Accordingly, company plans to grow the Vilnius location and increase the number of people it employs in Lithuania in the nearest future.

For Virginijus Sinkevičius, the minister of Economy and Innovation, SumUp’s decision to establish its services in Lithuania is a good message both, to the world about Lithuania’s regulatory ecosystem, as well as for local businesses:

“SumUp is considered as one of the most valuable and promising European fintechs, and one of the few oriented to B2B activities. Private consumers are already reaping fintechs provided benefits. However, financial technology start-ups can become key partners for small and medium enterprises helping them to ensure transparency of their activities and finding innovative ways of payments”, says Mr. Sinkevičius.

Mantas Katinas, the managing director of Invest Lithuania hopes that SumUp’s services will accelerate the growth of small businesses in Lithuania.

“It is great to welcome a startup that empowers small, individual business. This should encourage people to start their own businesses consequently add to the growth of small merchants that would accept card payments. We are happy that SumUp sees Lithuania’s potential in helping their company to grow even faster”, says Mrs. Katinas.

SumUp seeks to meet every business need of a small enterprise and through its products Debitoor and Shoplo it already offers its clients invoicing and eCommerce.  Lithuanian office will play an important role in SumUp’s future growth with Baltic states business development, compliance and operations team members located in Vilnius. The company also plans on becoming an active fintech member of the Lithuanian community.

SumUp participates in a number of social responsibility projects across all of its 15 offices globally and employs over 1500+ people around the world.