,

Happy Hump Day.

Sorry I didn't get this out last week — I was in Mexico City, where I convened almost 80 people across the ecosystem at a beautiful venue. I was genuinely surprised by how it came together, and the turnout exceeded everything I expected.

That experience, along with my recent time in Lithuania, reminded me of something I first noticed when working in Cape Town: there is still enormous opportunity that investors are leaving on the table internationally. If you are building outside of the US and want to connect, reply directly to this email.

It also informed my content this month. That's why I wrote about Nubank's entry into the US market — and why this week's piece is what it is.

Last week's piece on Nubank and the immigrant economy took on a life of its own. The response was overwhelming and deeply personal. People shared their own stories of navigating financial systems that were not built for them, which is exactly why I write this newsletter.

This week I want to do two things. First, a quick ask. Second, a look at the international fintechs I am paying the most attention to right now...

I have three Forbes contributor articles in the works and I am actively looking for founders, operators, investors, and analysts who want to contribute commentary. If any of these topics are in your wheelhouse, I would love to hear from you.

From revenue-based financing to inventory-backed credit lines, CPG brands are navigating an entirely new funding landscape. I am exploring how founders are financing production runs, managing working capital, and scaling distribution without drowning in dilution. If you have used alternative financing as a CPG founder, or you are building lending products for this space, let's talk.

This one is timely. Only 30% of insurance AI initiatives make it past proof-of-concept into real deployment. I am writing about what separates the pilots that ship from the ones that stall. Underwriting automation, claims triage, agentic AI, governance frameworks. If you are building or buying in this space, I want your perspective.

Nubank built its empire serving 105 million customers across Latin America by doing what legacy banks wouldn't: treating underserved populations like real customers. Now they're bringing that playbook to the US. But the American market is a different beast — saturated, skeptical, and already full of digital challengers that couldn't crack it. Is Nubank's trust-first model a genuine edge, or does it lose its power when the incumbent you're disrupting is Chase? I am looking for analysts, founders, and banking executives who want to weigh in.

One thing that struck me while writing the Nubank piece is how often the most interesting fintech stories are happening outside of Silicon Valley. They are in Vilnius, São Paulo, Nairobi, and Riyadh, in places where financial infrastructure is being built from scratch, often with better unit economics than anything in the US.

Lithuania in particular keeps showing up. With over 170 fintech startups in Vilnius alone, a combined value of around €1.8 billion, and Europe's largest concentration of electronic money institution licenses, the country has quietly become one of the most prolific fintech hubs on the continent. Two companies from there stood out to me.

Here is the map.

RegTech · AML/CFT · Seed Stage (€2.35M, Practica Capital)

AMLYZE is a regtech SaaS platform built by former Bank of Lithuania regulators and law enforcement officials. They provide end-to-end anti-financial crime solutions for fintechs, neobanks, crypto businesses, and traditional banks: real-time transaction monitoring, customer risk assessment, sanctions screening, and a cross-border information-sharing platform.

What caught my attention is the team's background. These are people who used to be on the other side of the table, supervising the institutions they now serve. Their default rules library has over 400 risk scoring rules and they have delivered up to a 62 percent reduction in false positives for clients. Recent partnerships with Kreda, one of Lithuania's largest credit union groups with €500 million in assets, and Perlas Finance, one of the country's largest payment service networks, show they are scaling beyond the startup tier.

They also got into the FCA Digital Sandbox and won the Mastercard LightHouse FINITIV program as the sole Lithuanian representative. Worth watching.

Crowdfunding · Buy-to-Let Real Estate · Licensed by Bank of Lithuania

InRento is the EU's first and largest licensed buy-to-let crowdfunding platform, and they have a stat that made me do a double take: zero late or defaulted projects since launching in 2020. Not one.

They let investors participate in rental property projects across Lithuania, Poland, Ireland, and Italy starting from just €500. They have surpassed €75 million in total funded investments with an average annual return above 11%, and their 24,000-plus users have collectively earned over €8 million in returns. The platform recently hired former Lithuanian Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė to lead foreign investor relations, which tells you something about their ambitions beyond the Baltics.

They also won the European FinTech Awards for best financing technology in Europe, in both 2022 and 2025. In a world of overvalued platforms with shaky fundamentals, InRento's track record is remarkably clean.

Payments Infrastructure · Pan-African · Growth Stage

I’ve been covering this company since 2020. The backbone of digital commerce across Africa. Flutterwave enables businesses to accept payments, make payouts, and move money across the continent. In a region where cash still dominates, they are building the rails that let e-commerce, ride-hailing, and SaaS platforms operate digitally. Their model echoes the Nubank thesis: build for the hardest market first, and the infrastructure advantage compounds.

Neobanking · Immigrant Finance · US Market

Zolve provides US checking accounts, credit cards, and auto loans to international users before they even arrive in the country. The immigrant banking thesis is not just Nubank's play. Zolve is building it from the other direction, solving the day-one financial access problem for students and professionals moving to the US. Same trust dynamics, different entry point.

Enterprise AI · AI Governance & Security · Series A (€30M, Index Ventures + Evantic Capital)

I sat down with COO Justus Morkunas — and what struck me was how viscerally the team understood the problem before they built the solution. They watched it happen inside their own portfolio companies: employees quietly uploading sensitive financial data to consumer AI tools, with zero visibility from the top. nexos.ai sits between employees and AI systems as a secure middleware layer, giving enterprises control without banning the tools people are already using. Index Ventures backed them twice in under a year. Another Lithuanian company building quietly and seriously.

Why Lithuania keeps showing up. 170-plus fintech startups in Vilnius, a fast-track regulatory environment via the Bank of Lithuania, and Europe's largest concentration of EMI licenses. Companies like AMLYZE and InRento represent two sides of the Lithuanian playbook: one enabling compliance infrastructure, the other building consumer-facing investment products. Both exporting far beyond the Baltics.

This is not an exhaustive map. It is a starting point. If there are international fintechs you think deserve to be on this list, send them my way. I am always looking for companies that are solving real problems with real economics.

📌 I was featured in Reader's Digest on Gen Z's “financial flexing” - read the article here

🎧 Last week I spoke with Furnished Finder’s CEO, Jeff Hurst. We dig into how he built a business serving a market others overlooked, and how my own journey as an accidental landlord shaped the way I think about the future of mid-term rentals.
👉 Listen on NPR, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts

New Orleans | 3rd Coast Venture Summit | 9 - 12 March

Austin | SXSW | 13 March | Join us for the Built In happy hour, RSVP here

📌One Tiny Country Dominates the Olympics—and Everyone Wants the Secret

📌US restaurants downsize meals to counter anti-obesity drugs and affordability crisis

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Till next week,
Ilona

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