Swedish startup Juni joins Lithuanian Fintech community

Swedish Fintech startup Juni has announced plans to establish a product development hub in Vilnius, Lithuania. The company plans to hire software developers, compliance officers and other specialists to fuel rapid expansion.

Founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, Juni was created to address the shortcomings of traditional banking services that hurt the bottom line of many e-commerce and online marketing companies.

“Banks don’t understand the needs of global digital businesses,” says Samir El-Sabini, co-founder and CEO of Juni. “The possibility to have accounts in different currencies is hard to find. Understanding your own cashflow is a nightmare when you’re working with hundreds of suppliers from all over the world. Digital entrepreneurs often spend way too much time chasing invoices instead of focusing on what they are good at.”

El-Sabini experienced all of these problems first-hand when he was responsible for the administrative work at a Swedish e-commerce and marketing company. Together with Anders Orsedal, now CTO of Juni, he set out to find a solution. Pooling their extensive experience in e-commerce, digital marketing and fintech industries, the co-founders came up with Juni, a banking app and platform for online entrepreneurs.

Juni acts as a financial companion for e-commerce and online marketing companies. The features the platform offers are tailored to the needs of digital entrepreneurs: Juni users get a VISA Platinum credit card with cashback on advertising spend, along with cash flow management, invoice and bank statement matching, and liquidity management features. The platform’s dashboard also provides a centralized overview of all bank accounts, networks and payment services.

“Juni offers a simpler, more streamlined way of managing the financial side of your e-commerce and performance marketing business, “El-Sabini explains. “It helps digital entrepreneurs to become more efficient by automating the time-consuming administrative work and providing all the financial information in one simple interface.’

When Juni launched a waiting list to test demand for a digital business-oriented banking platform, over 1200 companies signed up in a few weeks’ time. Building off the waiting list success, Juni recently raised €2M in seed funding. Currently, the platform is in a closed beta phase and set to launch in late February 2021.

After looking at many European locations, Juni decided that Vilnius is the best place to establish a new development hub. “With an amazing pool of tech talent and a close-knit fintech ecosystem, Lithuania is a great location to develop our platform,” says El-Sabini. Juni joins more than 200 fintech companies that have already established offices in Lithuania, including Railsbank, a banking platform that Juni has a partnership with.

Juni currently employs 10 people, but is planning to grow at a rapid pace. In the next 12 months, the company will add 20 to 30 people to its staff, who will have an option to work remotely full-time. Juni is looking to hire software developers, designers, product managers, compliance officers, sales and customer success representatives and other roles.

“Big Scandinavian banks, such as Danske and SEB, have previously chosen Lithuania for their multi-functional Global Services Centres, “says Mantas Katinas, Managing Director of Invest Lithuania. “The addition of Juni to the Lithuanian fintech landscape shows that the country is a great investment location for seed-stage Scandinavian fintech startups too.”