Lithuania’s Fintech sector remains resilient despite global downturn, Invest Lithuania report says

Lithuania, the EU’s largest Fintech hub by the number of licences issued, had another year of steady progress despite the continuing global economic downturn. According to a new report by Invest Lithuania, in 2023 the country saw an uptick in the number of both companies and specialists working in Fintech, with the sector showing a great level of resilience and maturity.

While the tech industry felt the impact of the global economic slowdown especially acutely last year, Lithuania’s Fintech sector exhibited considerable resilience. The number of Fintechs operating in Lithuania exceeded 270 for the first time, continuing a steady upward trend. Hokodo, Payhawk, Windcave, and global VC, innovation platform and accelerator Plug and Play are among the ones that joined the country’s Fintech landscape in 2023.  

Fintech employment figures also continued to rise, with the sector’s talent pool expanding by nearly 6% to over 7,400 professionals. The sector also showed notable progress in terms of gender parity. In the 77 Lithuania-based Fintechs that participated in Invest Lithuania’s yearly survey, women made up 45% of the overall workforce and 43% of executive positions. In technical roles, women accounted for 25% of the workforce, a figure that ranks among the best in terms of female representation in the ICT industry across Europe. 

In 2023, Lithuania continued to embrace promising Fintech subsectors, namely blockchain and crowdfunding. The recent introduction of Europe-wide crowdfunding regulation saw the country’s financial regulator, the Bank of Lithuania, swiftly making the necessary adjustments, which led to Lithuania becoming one of the top 3 countries for licenced crowdfunding service providers in the EU. 

When it comes to blockchain, last year highlighted Lithuania’s evolving role as a prominent player in the global virtual assets space. Particularly noteworthy is the substantial increase in the share of blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused Fintechs in Lithuania, which grew from 8% in 2022 to 13% in 2023. In line with this growth, Lithuania also aims to become a leader in embracing the EU’s upcoming Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. Known for its proactive regulatory stance in financial technology, the country is keen to welcome MiCA-compliant crypto companies ready to prioritise and invest in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) functions. 

This agile attitude towards Fintech has allowed Lithuania to build a stable and increasingly mature Fintech sector. Invest Lithuania’s survey suggests that financial self-sufficiency is one of the factors underpinning this stability. The majority of surveyed Fintechs, approximately 39%, primarily rely on revenue funding, which suggests a preference for sustainable growth models. 

As Invest Lithuania data shows, the outlook for Fintech in Lithuania this year is promising. A remarkable 75% of surveyed Lithuanian Fintechs anticipate consistent revenue growth in 2024, and over 30% foresee their revenues at least doubling. These projections illustrate the potential in the market for the coming year.