Episode 77: Ecosystem Zoom In – The Lithuanian Case

May 10, 2021 Meaghan Johnson Breaking Banks Europe 00:58:18 Comments Off on Episode 77: Ecosystem Zoom In – The Lithuanian Case

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3 million people, and around 250 fintechs. This is what it took to put Lithuania in 4th place in the GLOBAL FinTech Index in 2020. The population is truly devoted to “Building the Lithuanian dream” and the results are visible. Meaghan Johnson agreed and hosted this vibrant episode with 3 stakeholders creating impact themselves: Zygimantas Zabieta (Ioon Technologies), Vytautas Černiauskas (Contribee) and Sarune Smalakyte (ROCKIT). We can’t recommend enough for you to take an hour and enjoy the first Baltics Ecosystem Zoom In at Breaking Banks Europe.

More on our guests:
Zygimantas Zabieta (CEO at Ioon Technologies)
Zygimantas is a future innovation maniac, founder of the e-mobility startup, and enthusiast of the renewable energy and blockchain industry. He is a professional speaker, moderator of tech events, startup mentor, professional networker, and Global Shaper. He holds an MSc degree in Environmental Management and Policy at Lund University. Zygimantas managed a number of renewable energy and e-mobility projects, including the development of the first Lithuanian EV fast-charging network in 2017. In 2018 he started to build the Lithuanian blockchain community by organising 70 events in just 8 months. Later, he joined a business consultancy, where he managed international blockchain startup acceleration projects. In the mid-2020, he started his own company in the e-mobility sector. Ioon Technologies develops a mobile battery-powered EV charger that will provide access to faster EV charging anywhere in the world.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zabieta/
ClubHouse: @zzabieta

Vytautas Černiauskas (Co-founder of Contribee, Expert at Startup Division and Civitta)
Vytautas is deeply engaged in innovations and the startup ecosystem. He has mentored, coached and advised more than 100 startups. He has over 14 years of experience in business development, operations, project management, communications. Vytautas has earned an MBA degree, worked at Swedbank, Uber and has startup experience.
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vytvyt/
Contribee: https://contribee.com/

Sarune Smalakyte (Head of ROCKIT)
Sarune is the Head of ROCKIT – the Home of FinTech and Sustainable Innovation in Lithuania powered by Swedbank.
Since 2016 she has been managing the biggest community of FinTech creators and founders in the country. Together with ROCKIT, she brings talent, expertise, knowledge, and infrastructure to support the local ecosystem through various programs, events, B2B matchmaking, direct links to the ecosystem leaders, hosting and accelerating startups. Sarune is an active supporter and mentor for entrepreneurship programs, especially focusing on women in technology. Before joining ROCKIT, she has worked as a Community Manager for an international FinTech Hub Rise created by Barclays.
ROCKIT: https://www.rockitvilnius.com/
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarunesmalakyte/

Digital Magss
About the Author
Meaghan has over 8 years experience researching and analysing customer journeys, trends and innovations within the digital financial services space. She also has deep experience in customer testing, the jobs to be done framework, and UI design. She began her journey in digital financial services at Mapa Research, where she worked closely with dozens of financial institutions digital teams including: American Express, Barclays, UBS, Nordea, ING, AIB, RBS and others. Here she informed digital product and strategy teams of competitor mobile and desktop banking initiatives and provided bespoke research and workshops in new product development. After Mapa, she co-founded 11:FS, where she co-build 11:FS Pulse. In addition, she worked closely in the early stages of greenfield digital banking projects where she provided support in market, competitor and customer analysis. Since 2017 Meaghan has been consulting banks of all shapes and sizes, fintechs, company builders, management consultancies and crypto companies as a freelancer in customer experience, design, product strategy and data commercialisation in Europe, Africa, North and Central America. She also creates and executes customer testing programmes, and runs competitor insights and blue sky thinking workshops. Meaghan is also a Partner at Pacemakers, Senior Advisor at EFMA, Fintech Lead at Solvers, and Breaking Banks Europe Podcast Host.
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