New resident, Mantas Mockevicius is an interesting young entrepreneur and the co-founder of Bankera, a financial platform offering cryptocurrency-backed loans.
Born in Siauliai, Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region of Europe, Mantas Mockevicius travelled to the Principality of Monaco for the first time in 2017. It was love at first sight for him, as well as admiration for the climate that led him to the decision to relocate to Monaco.
“I wanted to move to a bit warmer climate. But to be honest, Monaco offered more than this, the whole environment played an important part in my decision” - says Mantas.
When did you become officially a resident in the Principality of Monaco?
“I became a resident two years ago. Before that, I enjoyed spending much time here and I liked it very much.”
Siauliai is the fourth largest city in Lithuania with 785 years of history. It’s green, cozy, and clean. It is also considered a sports city. Siauliai is also well-known for its NATO air base since Lithuania is a member of the NATO.
Siauliai is very strong in sports, did you ever do any sports as a kid?
“Basketball is like a second Lithuanian religion, in Siauliai it is football and rugby. However, I was more into computers” - laughs Mantas.
What were the three most important reasons for you to relocate to Monaco?
“The first and the most important reason of all is people. Monaco is a destination of choice for the most talented people from various fields, from sports to business. It is important to be surrounded by the best people when you are striving for excellence.
The second reason is location – not only is Monaco extremely well-positioned within Europe as most of the business centers can be reached within 2 hours flight, but Monaco is also an important location on the business map regarding networking, business meetings, and events.
And the third and final reason is climate – in addition to Monaco’s amazing business climate, weather and nature make it an ideal place to live and work in.”
How do you find Monaco and its living environment?
“Relocating to Monaco was one of the best decisions in my whole life. I was really impressed by the density of inspiring and like-minded people, whom I have met and with whom I had plenty of thought-provoking conversations. Also, here you are living in a world-class city where everything can be reached within 15 minutes, which is a unique experience. In addition to all this, you are constantly surrounded by breathtaking nature.”
As a FinTech Entrepreneur did you always want to work in the finance field? Did you have any other goal as a child?
“The IT and digital economy have started to develop rapidly during my childhood years, that’s what interested me most. Later on, I realized how difficult it is to pay online and that inspired the idea of developing new innovative online payment systems.”
Where does your enthusiasm for virtual currencies come from?
“Back in 2009, together with my business partner Justas Dobiliauskas, we successfully launched and founded a virtual currency exchange, even before Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were invented. These virtual currencies were a preferred payment method for a lot of internet entrepreneurs.
Later, in 2011, I came across the concept of Bitcoin and it really caught my attention. Mainly, because of its transparency and stability as it does not require intermediaries to operate. This aligns with my vision of business processes since I believe that intermediaries are the key source of business risks. More and more of our clients started to ask for Bitcoin exchange services. So it was a natural move to start offering the best payment method our clients could get to pay and receive money with online.”
Mantas is also the co-founder of Bankera, a bank account alternative system that provides business/personal accounts, exchange, and loans.
Bankera, your business achieved much success during the pandemic. What is your secret?
“Bankera was endorsed by the European Commission because we were able to start offering loans to businesses affected by the pandemic within four months from the beginning of it. We were able to do it very quickly, as in the early days we have chosen to do as much as possible in-house. We wanted to avoid dependency on third parties by reducing operational risks and becoming more flexible.
For example, I and my business partners have chosen to grow our business vertically. Even Bankera is a vertical integration to another SpectroCoin cryptocurrency exchange business, which allows us to offer traditional financial services to our clients without intermediaries.
As a result, now we operate SEPA and SWIFT payments, open dedicated accounts with international bank account numbers (IBANs) and offer payment processing services. Furthermore, our licensed entity behind Bankera became a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, which allows us to issue physical and virtual payment cards directly. This possibility gives us a lot of space to be flexible and innovative.”
When you conceptualize a digital product how do you differentiate it from the competitors?
“When you are fast and first in the market, intellectual property rarely exists and competitors are copying each other. This is especially the case in financial services, so being a pioneer to offer such services is a key element.
Since communication with a client in digital business is usually one-way – a client sees your website and makes a decision – it is very important to understand your client and promote your service in a way that the client understands your proposal. Sometimes it requires going an extra mile and even mastering and using the client’s jargon.”
How would you compare the cryptocurrency scenery in Monaco versus Lithuania?
“Cryptocurrency has attracted attention in Lithuania from already the very early days. The reason for this is that relatively larger proportion of people has chosen to work online, which includes not only internet entrepreneurs, but also digital designers, freelancers etc. One of the most challenging part while conducting business online is to send and receive money in a cheap, secure and fast way. So Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies grabbed the attention in Lithuania first as a payment option, which spun off the development of crypto enthusiast community connect traders, developers, miners and libertarians.
By now you can hear a lot of people talking about cryptocurrency here in Monaco too. Firstly, there are people who made their fortune in cryptocurrencies settling in Monaco. Secondly, the Monaco population is very tech-savvy and traditionally has been interested in finance. So naturally cryptocurrency is gaining interest among the Monaco residents and they are increasingly curious to learn about it.“
How does Monaco support your business? Is it strategically important as well?
“Monaco is a well-respected jurisdiction, and being an owner based in Monaco helps my business to get a good view from my business partners.”
How easy or difficult is it to be a young entrepreneur in an often traditional and old-fashioned Monaco?
“I would not call Monaco old-fashioned; a better term would be stable. And stability is one of the main things which makes Monaco a great place for entrepreneurs.
As the world is changing, so is Monaco and its demographics. While in the past entrepreneurs would usually consider relocating to Monaco at the end of their career and active involvement in business, now business people relocate while still being fully involved in business.”
What do you think about Monaco’s digital transition?
“I am really impressed about Monaco’s digital transition in the recent couple of years. It seems to be very fast and efficient. Monaco has introduced the digital bus tickets, Carlo app, the digital signature and other useful digital solutions for businesses, and residents. I believe that Monaco can become one of the most digitized countries in the world, because of its size and modern infrastructure (fast internet).
The key to Monaco’s success is being very efficient, which roots in the need to use Monaco’s land as efficiently as possible. Not only digital transition will bring Monaco’s efficiency to the next level, but it will also allow growing its economy vertically without relying so much on physical limitations.
Also, it will make it more attractive and ready to accommodate the next generation of entrepreneurs, who are not only used to doing everything digitally but usually make their fortune in the digital economy.
Besides all of this, there are lots of positive external effects of digitalization. For example, it will allow eliminating language barriers for non-French speaking residents as online services can support multiple languages, and this will contribute to Monaco as an international orientated country.”
Last year you established Nomad Advisory SARL. Can you tell us more about your Monaco-related activities?
“In the recent years, we have noticed a tendency by which more and more clients of our businesses are relocating to various destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Andorra, and other locations, or choosing a nomad life, being always on the move. However, they are still staying in business. Such a lifestyle change usually requires a strategical change in the way it is conducted. This can result in various operational, security, legal and other risks. While their businesses are usually not relocated, their operations require digital transformation such as remote work environments, security protocols, etc.
Based on our business know-how as well as personal experiences, we can provide tailor-made solutions for the digital transformation of businesses by taking into consideration not only technical, but also security, legal, and operational implications.
We advise and help in arranging everything required for a new remote setup from data centers, cloud-based solutions to contracts and even payment accounts.”
You also offer cryptocurrency-backed loans. It is quite a new type of financial service.
“Yes, we combine traditional lending with the latest technology. For instance, one can deposit Bitcoin and we are able to offer cash up to 50% of the value of the cryptocurrency. It is a good way to overcome short-term liquidity problems, while you still have the position of your cryptocurrency.”
Do people use your service to re-invest as well?
“Absolutely, many of our clients are taking a loan to actually buy more cryptocurrency. This way they are able to diversify or increase the value of their assets.”
Do you invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dodge coin, etc?
“Yes, but I believe it is the technology itself, not the cryptocurrency that has the biggest potential to generate the most value in the long-term. So I focus more on investing in the projects utilizing the technology, not cryptocurrencies themselves.
It is important to understand, that while Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cannot be counterfeited, the protocol itself can be easily duplicated. For example, the famous Dogecoin is a copy of Litecoin, which itself is a modified copy of Bitcoin. Furthermore, most cryptocurrencies have technical limitations such as how many transactions they can process.
So after Bitcoin became so popular that transactions on its blockchain became expensive, actual users have started using alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin.
This means that different cryptocurrencies are and will be used as alternative payment channels and while they are competing, they are not a direct threat to each other.”
Do you work with Monaco-based banks and wealth managers as well?
“Cryptocurrency is quite new in Monaco and due to the various compliance requirements, it is still a new area for the Principality. But I think it is definitely coming to Monaco (slowly), and it will define the financial market in the upcoming years. However, we should not forget that most of the banks and wealth managers need to comply with strict regulations.”
What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
“If you have a dream and a vision, you must do whatever it takes to succeed. Never depend on other people’s opinions. They always tend to believe they know better. Trust your guts, believe in yourself, and never stop pursuing your goals.”
Do you have any new projects coming soon?
“I am mainly focused now on SpectroCoin virtual currency exchange. We are adding new coins, implementing margin trading, over-the-counter product, and improving cryptocurrency payment solutions. More new projects and ideas are on the go.”
Do you miss Lithuania?
“Sometimes. Family, I miss a lot. Normally it is easy to travel, but for me, Monaco is a new place so it is just natural that I miss my friends and family.”
Do you think your Bankera co-founders will relocate to Monaco as well?
“Absolutely. They are already considering it because we would like to be together as a team.”