Fintech sector accounts for one fifth of all Latvian startups

Take note – story published 3 years ago

A new report published July 24 says that one in five new Latvian startup companies belong to the Financial Technology or 'Fintech' sector.

Swedbank Latvia has partnered with the Latvian Startup association to produce the first-ever Latvian Fintech Report which surveys of active fintech companies registered in Latvia and offers a view of the fintech landscape.

The report says Fintech startups are playing an increasingly important role - the Latvian startup ecosystem consists of 450-500 startups, of which 91 companies work directly with the products and services in the fintech segment. 

The Latvian Fintech report 2020 survey respondents represent 40% of all currently active fintech startups registered in Latvia, offering a deeper view into the current trends of the fintech ecosystem.

Of the 91 active fintech companies currently registered in Latvia and most of them are operating in the B2B (Business to Business) sector. Europe is the key market for 89% of companies that participated in the survey and almost half of the surveyed companies say that it is easy to establish a startup in Latvia and the local ecosystem is business-friendly.

However, attracting talent from abroad is a challenge and providing a startup visa is important for the industry. The report shows that 40% of startups based in Latvia have international teams and the gender balance at the management level in Latvia is higher than elsewhere in Europe. 57% of companies have female executives in the management structure.

Despite the situation with COVID-19, most of the surveyed startups are planning significant growth, and 88% plan to attract new employees in the near future.

“In a very short time, Latvia has built a large talent pool of world-class experts in both finance and innovation, and over time, as the borders of traditional industries became too narrow, they have gone further to build companies around finance and technologies,” said Ģirts Bērziņš, Head of Innovation at Swedbank Latvia. 

The full report can be read onine: www.swedbank.lv/innovatetogether

 

 

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