Meet Metasite, Your FinTech Partner

BERLIN, Germany - Pangea is delighted to introduce Metasite, experts in crafting bespoke digital solutions for the financial sector. From London to Zurich to New York, the savvy Lithuanian company combines stellar technological know-how with a deep understanding of how financial instruments, markets, and mathematics work. In honour of their being a trusted part of the Pangea universe for 5 years, today we are diving deep into the benefits offered by this Baltic business!

Decades of financial expertise

Metasite traces its origins all the way back to 1997 when two experts in the financial services and telecommunications worlds decided to start one of the Baltic’s first digital consultancies in Vilnius, Lithuania - now widely recognised as European Union’s fintech capital. Right from the start, the company earned a reputation as the go-to consultant in the burgeoning field of FinTech. Indeed, in their second year of existence, they were developing online products for major financial players like Swedbank, Reuters and the NSEL (now part of Nasdaq)!

More than two decades later, they’ve helped a slew of hedge funds, banks, insurers, and fintech startups: these days, their business is primarily with Western European and US clients, who made up a full 85% of the company’s revenue in 2020. When Metasite joined the Pangea universe, the company was enjoying a steady 29% YoY revenue growth and earned a deserved Pangea Score of 8.7/10.0.

Mante Januskeviciene—managing director and CEO since 2008—has confidence that her team’s expertise in all things financial gives them a deep industry knowledge that most other software development companies just can’t match:

“Our team offers a rare combination of deep understanding of the financial services domain and bespoke software engineering excellence.”

So whether you are an established banking stalwart or an up-and-coming digital finance disruptor, read on to learn a bit more about this tried and true Lithuanian fintech engineering crew!

An engineer of Metasite performing algorithmic magic

Autonomous & Awesome Teams

Metasite’s 100-strong team of qualified bespoke financial software development specialists share average seniority of 6 years and operate within an office culture that embodies flat hierarchies and autonomy. Indeed, according to Valentinas Bogdanovicius - business analysis competence lead and .NET team lead at Metasite - these semi-autonomous teams are one of Metasite’s strengths. Each acting as “a small startup within a company”, their project delivery teams are “end-to-end responsible for the stuff they build” and have the freedom to decide “what to build, how to build it, and how to work together while doing it.”

Pangea can attest to Metasite’s commitment to its employees. The company has a dedicated Head of People and Culture and—when it was still possible—frequently organized team-building outings like golf trips, FIFA tournaments, and VR play events. The company remains committed to the professional development of its employees, and actively supports them in exploring their interests in cutting-edge technological trends.

To get a sense of the camaraderie and friendships that Metasite fosters, simply hear it from their own employees:

“[Working at Metasite] is like a road trip with your friends – full of challenges and opportunities. You never know what’s waiting for you around the corner; new technology or a tool, a new project or a new colleague.”

- Edvinas, Senior Engineer & UI Competence Lead (and Drum & Bass aficionado)

“There are so many great colleagues willing to exchange ideas, share their experiences and give you a hand when needed - a source of inspiration and professional growth that I value greatly.”

- Greta, IT Recruiter (and Professional Motorcycle Rider)

Who let the dogs out?

Specialization as a “Secret Weapon”

With years of experience working within the industries of insurance, investment management, and banking & payments, Metasite has truly found its niche. To founder Aldas Kirvaitis, this particular expertise in IT and finance is their “secret weapon” in standing out in a crowded field:

“Clients often tell us that there are not many bespoke technology delivery partners in London, Zurich or New York that can offer exactly this combination of competencies”.

Metasite’s commitment to their specific craft has led them to be trusted by a plethora of well-respected financial industry giants - including the Man Group, one of the world’s largest hedge fund management firms, and Vontobel Asset Management, a globally operating Swiss investment management giant with over 120bn CHF in AUM.

In recent years Metasite engineering teams have also done work for one of the three largest global stock exchanges and successfully delivered bespoke software development projects for Equiniti, a 5000-strong FTSE250 international payments and technology-led services specialist entrusted by its clients to hold 70m shareholder records, send £90bn in payments in each year, look after over a million share plan investors and interact with 27m shareholders and pensioners.

The company’s long-standing relationship with such storied clients certainly paid dividends, as Metasite was consistently praised during our interviews with them five years ago. Their overall client score of 8.7/10.0 was buoyed by consistently high marks across the board in individual metrics: a 9.0/10.0 in technical expertise, 8.9/10.0 in both UI/UX design and business maturity, as well as 8.8/10.0 in project management and documentation.

Just listen to some of the praise heaped on the company by their happy customers:

“We have found the Metasite development team to be capable of reliably delivering quality software code and UX designs with efficiency, flexibility and speed. Engaging Metasite has enabled [us] to cut time-to-market and refocus our internal tech teams on the development of core technologies.”

- Richard Strutt, Co-CTO @ AHL, Man Investments

“Metasite had expertise in our area of financial instruments - and we were comfortable that where they did not have the expertise, they would be able to actually obtain that expertise and scale and grow the business together with us.

It’s worked incredibly well. We feel like it’s an extension of our team - we have weekly updates and we use very efficient collaboration technology.”

- Vincent Dahinden, CEO @ Solum Financial

“The Metasite team stayed professional and patient during a challenging project, delivering on their promises and providing valuable suggestions on improvements of requirements, solutions and process - we really appreciated that.

We had a great working relationship throughout the entire 18 month-long collaboration and I would be happy to recommend Metasite to any enterprise seeking an experienced and reliable delivery partner for a demanding bespoke IT platform development project.”

- Kevin O’Connor, Group Chief Information Officer @ Equiniti Group plc

“Metasite delivers high-quality code and ensures that test coverage fits very high standards, we feel confident to get a high quality and carefully tested product.”

- Konstantinas Ilarionovas, Head of IT Department @ ERGO

“Tele2 has been successfully working with Metasite on a number of IT projects since 2009. Metasite has been providing Tele2 with excellent service while developing bespoke software solutions to automate customer-servicing and other processes. I can confidently recommend Metasite as a solid and reliable IT development partner.”

- Saulius Stepanauskas, Billing and IT Manager @ Tele2 Lithuania

Colleagues at Metasite staying fit and healthy together!

The stack to power the next-gen of products in fintech

Whether your project requires Java, .NET, Node.js or Python, Metasite’s tech stack is more than enough to get the job done right. Their bright engineers can happily explain the pros and cons of React vs. Angular in the front-end, or delve deep into the intricacies of Docker and Kubernetes.

Indeed, from Ethereum to OpenGamma Strata, the company keeps up with the latest and greatest trends in the tech and financial worlds. This makes them an ideal partner whether you want new product development, legacy systems modernisation, or simply support and maintenance of your existing solutions - and their obsession with secure coding practices, ISO 27001 certification and extensive experience in deploying enterprise-ready software solutions on private and public clouds, as well as on-premise, ensure your projects will be hitting their launch dates on time.

As we mentioned earlier, Metasite’s combination of financial industry know-how and excellent technical competence set them apart from the rest. This is very much in keeping with the company’s three main values:

• Excellence
• Long-Term Focus, and
• Curiosity

Metasite projects last up to six months on average, so expect fast and dedicated service if you choose to engage with them. Simply check out their Engagement Page and if you are intrigued by their pedigree, we would be most happy to connect you!