Softloans receives double award – one for being selected as the regional Baltic class winner, and another for being recognized as the overall winner of the Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV Program. The awards have been handed over during the Mastercard Lighthouse Showcase event in Stockholm and Slush 2024 conference in Helsinki. Softloans will now receive ongoing support from Mastercard and has to opportunity to pitch for Start Path, Mastercard’s global start-up engagement program

Softloans develops embedded lending solutions (stand-alone Softloans platform or fully embedded solution), that help electronic money institutions, ecommerce and other digital service platforms grow by extending credit to their B2B customers. Offered tools facilitate revenue-based lending, focused on web-based merchants and revenue-based digital service providers.

For partners, Softloans provides the technology and funds they need to manage clients, loans, and risks. For merchants, revenue-based financing powered by Softloans opens access to working capital that helps them grow, with no collateral required.

Based on the opinion of this fall’s selection committee, Softloans was selected as the overall FINITIV Program winner on account of their solution addressing the underserved market of SME lending, their partnership potential and overall progress in the program.

“The recognition that comes as a part of this win is of utmost importance for our team and partners working to open up access to capital for SMEs across Europe and beyond. Doing well by doing good is at the heart of our agenda. The Softloans embedded financing solution helps everyone in the ecosystem grow: SMEs, our Partners, and us. To accelerate the impact of our solution and help SMEs grow we are actively looking to build new partnerships in the region. Now is the time to join us in changing how SMEs access capital.”, Audrius Griškevičius, Co-founder and CEO at Softloan

“Softloans stood out for their innovative approach to tackling a very real customer problem. By connecting platforms with credit options for their B2B customers, they enable both the platforms to scale and their business customers to access financing. The solution is intuitive and accessible, with interactive features and clear data visualizations that makes it highly user friendly. The team brings a strong mix of backgrounds in lending and technology and gave a professional impression throughout the program.

Softloans is making a valuable contribution to embedded lending in the B2B space and we’re excited to see how they continue to push forward in this evolving sector”, – Hanna Ivarsson, Senior Strategist, Resurs

The Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV program runs over a three-month period and offers Nordic and Baltic fintech and fintech-enabler startups and early scaleups the opportunity to work with stakeholders such as Mastercard, tier one Nordic banks (e.g. SEB, Swedbank, OP Financial Group, Resurs, Danske Bank and DNB), our tech partners (e.g. AWS), program advisors (e.g. FinTech Mundi and Invenio Growth) and a circle of Investors. The purpose of the program is to create conditions favorable for identifying and pursuing partnerships between the program participants and stakeholders, and even the participants themselves.

Twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, an overall Program winner is selected by the program stakeholders, based on variety of criteria such as partnership capacity, value proposition, relevance, invest and innovation potential, and traction.

Mats Taraldsson, Head of Fintech, and Impact Tech Engagement at Mastercard Nordics and Baltics says: “The financial technology industry is undergoing a transformational shift, and the fintech companies selected for this program are at the forefront of this revolution. I am excited to see the innovation and disruption that they are bringing – they are pushing the boundaries of traditional banking and payment methods, and their solutions are addressing the changing needs and expectations of consumers and small and medium enterprises. We are very happy to see that Softloans was appointed as the overall winner of the 2024 Fall FINITIV Program with its innovative solution and vision for enabling the possibility for merchants to get revenue-based financing that opens access to working capital that helps them grow and this without collateral requirement.”

Aside from Softloans, three other startups stood out in this fall’s FINITIV 2024 class.

Betalo was declared as the winner of the Swedish class of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV, Fall 2024. Betalo is a licensed payment institute that enables B2B and B2C invoice payments with credit cards to optimize cash flow and loyalty programs.

Silcube was announced as the winner of the Finnish class of Mastercard Lighthouse FINITIV, Fall 2024. Silcube is a SaaS platform that helps funds, banks, and insurance companies run private debt portfolios efficiently, with AI and intuitive UI.

The People’s Choice Award was given to Bilance, the most popular company based on collecting the most votes through their social media platforms. Bilance is a smart budgeting app in the Baltics that helps people save money and make better financial decisions with AI-powered insights.