In response to the changes to crowdfunding regulation in the European Union, the Lithuanian creator of alternative financing platforms CreditOnline and the attorney office EXE.legal signed a strategic partnership agreement on providing integrated solutions to crowdfunding service providers. This one-stop-shop of legal and technology services is expected to help the crowdfunding market expand its business in the EU.
According to the head of the attorney office EXE.legal Dr Paulius Astromskis, the favourable Lithuanian business environment and the growing reputation of Lithuania as the EU’s fintech centre could help the country attract new crowdfunding market players who would develop their business from Lithuania. “Lithuania holds 11th place of 190 countries in the global Doing Business ranking. This means that, in general, we can offer especially favourable business conditions to companies that want to build their business in Lithuania. Furthermore, Lithuania has markedly improved its reputation as Europe’s fintech centre over the past few years, with an ideal ecosystem and high-quality oversight. Due to these and a myriad of other reasons, the new crowdfunding market regulations could be especially favourable for Lithuania,” Paulius Astromskis, the head of EXE.legal, says.
According to Juozas Rupšys, the founder and head of CreditOnline, Lithuania has deep traditions in creating alternative financing platforms. As of late, platforms created in our county have been touted as some of the best in the world. For example, the financing solutions created by CreditOnline have appeared among the top 10 best platforms on the prestigious GoodFirms ranking. In addition, one of the world’s leading service, product and software review websites, Digital.com, included CreditOnline among its Top 20 global loan servicing software creators.
Furthermore, the rapid growth of the crowdfunding market in Lithuania shows that our specialists know how to grow this business niche. Lithuanian banking figures indicate that in the first half of this year, crowdfunding platform operators formed a third more contracts than over the entirety of 2020, and the combined value of financed projects has also grown by a third. One of the reasons for such growth lies in how both Lithuania and the entire Eurozone have seen citizen savings fluctuate around the historical maximum and so, people are actively seeking means of effectively employing their savings. For example, just in Lithuania, the citizens’ banking deposits increased by around 4 billion euros since the beginning of the covid pandemic, reaching 19.4 billion euros. Similar trends also prevail in other Eurozone countries. Thus, the new regulations will open up new opportunities for these investors to invest, for project developers to receive necessary financing and for crowdfunding platforms to facilitate the aforementioned parties’ deal-making.
