Yesterday, October 27, Fintech Latvia Association presented its outlook magazine “The Pulse of Latvian Fintech” which summarizes local industry trends and insights. This is the first such in-depth outlook of the Latvian Fintech industry prepared to work as a guide for future investors. The outlook suggests that despite the bumps and roadblocks of global pandemics, the local Fintech industry is up for further growth this year. It also showcases the massive recent transformations of the local ecosystem that has helped Latvia to maintain its position as a strong regional Fintech hub.

The outlook’s launch event gathered local Fintech ecosystem partners – Fintechs, regulators, and state partners – to celebrate the positive growth trajectory that the industry has managed to hold. Although the data presented in the report suggest a declining tendency in the numbers of newly incorporated Fintechs over the past three years of the pandemic, the active Fintechs have a positive prognosis for their future. According to the market participants’ survey, the majority of respondents expect revenue growth of around 1-100% in 2022, whereas 16.7% of respondents claim an even higher potential revenue growth rate of either 100-300% or 300-700%.

Another important conclusion about the local ecosystem is industry’s excellent cooperation with the state. The report broadly has covered the transformations of the regulatory framework of the industry operations to meet the market needs. 

“We highly appreciate our state partners and our open dialogue. The transformation that we all have managed to undergo in the past years is immense, and it has brought visible results. It is not that often you can hear somebody speak about public actors, especially regulators, with a positive sentiment. And I believe that particularly this is one of the main factors why Latvia has managed to maintain its status as a regional Fintech hub even throughout these rough years. It also is one of the reasons why this complex industry has managed to show constant growth,” says Tīna Lūse, Managing Director of the Fintech Latvia Association.

The report also suggests that there still are some opportunities that Latvia as a country must harvest to foster further growth of the Fintech industry and reap the benefits of that growth. Among those is the homework to ease the access to banking payment infrastructure, strengthening of cooperation with banks, and digital currencies. However, the overall feedback from the industry is that Latvia is a great place to launch a responsible worldwide Fintech startup.

Fintech outlook magazine “The Pulse of Latvian Fintech” is a public overview of the state of Latvian fintech ecosystem, sharing industry’s key growth metrics, emerging trends, and commentaries on future predictions. The outlook magazine was prepared and presented by the Fintech Latvia Association. The magazine is meant to work as a guide for future investors, featuring noteworthy insights from industry experts and state actors on matters such as regulatory framework, available support mechanisms, and capital availability. This is the first such in-depth outlook of the Latvian Fintech industry.

Read the full outlook here

Photos from the event available here