Open banking Fintech Yapily, a London-based startup, will open an office in Vilnius, Lithuania, the company’s third European office. Yapily notes that it joins a number of UK Fintechs including Revolut, Curve, and Square that have operations in Lithuania. The company says it will hire up to 30 people in Vilnius in the coming months. Yapily is currently recruiting for compliance, engineering, product, and operations roles.
Launched in 2017 after the EU’s PSD2 provided greater 3rd partner access to financial data, Yapily is a platform that enables companies to take advantage of open banking. Yapily connects businesses to banks and financial institutions using a single open API. Using the platform, companies can access their customers’ account information and gain a holistic financial view without having to build and maintain hundreds of APIs of their own.
Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO of Yapily, says his company makes connecting to banks simple:
“We connect you to thousands of banks using an open banking API, taking care of the complexity behind the scenes”.
Yapily reports that it now enables companies to connect to hundreds of banks, providing 80% account coverage across 15 European countries. The company claims customers like American Express, IBM, Intuit Quickbooks, GoCardless and BUX. In the last 12 months, Yapily says it has tripled its headcount and currently employs 72 people in offices in the UK and Germany.
According to Vaccino, Yapily’s current focus is to penetrate the pan-European market following Brexit. Yapily says it considered several European locations, including Portugal and Germany. The company says it was important to find a supportive regulator and Fintech ecosystem. It’s Lithuanian entity received a regulatory license in December 2020, prior to the UK leaving the EU, and is now focused on its expansion plans.
“Outside of the UK, Lithuania has the second-largest Fintech hub in Europe,” states Vaccino. “The local regulator plays a positive role in the fintech ecosystem, allowing Yapily to become a part of it.”
Mantas Katinas, Managing Director of Invest Lithuania, says that as more banks become compliant with PSD2 Lithuania’s Fintech community could be “at the forefront of developing financial products leveraging this new access to data. Yapily’s choice to set up an office in Vilnius shows that Lithuania is an excellent base for cutting-edge fintechs.”
Since its launch, Yapily has raised $18.4 million in venture funding from investors including Holtzbrinck Ventures, LocalGlobe, and Lakestar.