Fintech Inn 2021, the largest fintech conference in the Baltics, has concluded with a day full of stimulating panel discussions. Top fintech experts shared their insights into alternative financing, crypto investments, decentralized identity, and other current and future industry trends. The second day of the event also featured a “know-how” session on tech journalism with TechCrunch’s Editor-at-Large, Mike Butcher.
Friday’s agenda kicked off with a discussion on the future of alternative financing. Titled “Is Alternative Financing Becoming Mainstream Financing?”, the panel had fintech leaders highlighting the key elements to alternative finance’ success: having better customer relationships, superior scoring models, and a greater degree of flexibility than traditional lenders.
With venture capital firms continuing to pour significant funds into the digital asset space, VC interest in crypto is at an all-time high. The “Venture Investments in Crypto/Digital Assets Industry” panel addressed the impact of blockchain transparency on investments, the ways of making the volatile crypto more attractive to an average investor, and the importance of founder involvement for the credibility of venture investments in crypto, among other topics.
As traditional ways of sending and receiving transactions became problematic with the advent of COVID-19, it is not surprising that the shift to digitalization in the payments industry is now proceeding faster than ever before. The pandemic-driven changes were among the central topics of the “Powering the Potential of Payments” panel. The panellists discussed rising customer expectations, and the explosion of digital wallets, and the challenges of establishing last-mile connectivity.
Finance is entering the golden age of technology, especially with COVID-19 accelerating the digital transformation of the global financial system. But what’s next for the industry when it comes to digital? What are the hurdles in the way of technological disruption? The panel “Digital Transformation: The Next Era of Fintech” tackled these questions, with financial experts discussing the process of developing a modern financial ecosystem, the emerging partnerships between fintechs and incumbents, and how the adoption of the latest technologies changes the organisational culture in financial institutions.
Liutauras Žilinskas, Investment Advisor for Technology at Invest Lithuania, the country’s FDI promotion agency, delivered the Fintech Inn 2021 keynote talk titled “The Success Story Behind the Growth of Lithuania’s Fintech Ecosystem and Where Do We Go From Here?”. Liutauras touched on the rapid rise of Lithuania’s fintech ecosystem, the success stories of international financial companies established in the country and the value proposition that landed them here, as well as on the sector’s future global and local trends.
The emergence of advanced digital identification technologies promises better services for consumers, and new revenue streams, greater operational efficiencies, and better risk mitigation for fintechs. During the last panel of Fintech Inn 2021, titled “Digital Identity & Decentralised Identity: Challenges & Opportunities”, fintech leaders talked about the success of eID across the Baltics and Scandinavia, the EU Digital Identity Wallet proposal, and the significance of eID for decentralized finance.
Fintech Inn 2021 attendees also had the chance to participate in a workshop on tech journalism with TechCrunch Editor-at-large, Mike Butcher. One of the most influential tech journalists in Europe, Mike gave a first-hand account of the startup media world, as well as actionable PR insights and tips on gaining the attention of top-tier journalists after the excitement that follows a fundraising announcement has passed.
The Fintech Inn conference was jointly organised by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, and the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA), with support from compliance platform Ondato, API management platform Sensedia, and Vilnius-based ROCKIT – Home of FinTech and Sustainable Innovation.
