at Hanzas Perons in Riga, in front of the most ambitious fintech minds from across the Baltics and beyond, TWINO's CEO Nauris Bloks was named Fintech Leader of the Year at the Baltic FinTech Awards 2026. We could not be more proud.

The Baltic FinTech Awards are not a participation trophy. They exist to recognise the builders, the people, and companies turning Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia into one of the most serious fintech corridors on the continent. To win in the category of Fintech Leader of the Year, in a room full of the region's best, means something.

To us at TWINO, it means everything, because we know exactly what went into it.

What makes Nauris exceptional is not the title or the stage moment. It is how he shows up every single day. He invests deeply in his team, creating an environment where people grow, take real ownership, and move forward with a shared sense of purpose.

At the same time, Nauris brings a strong and clear vision for technological development and innovation, always pushing for smarter, more sustainable ways to build. He believes that long-term success is built by knowledgeable, empowered teams, and he structures everything around that conviction.

"At TWINO, I am genuinely excited about what we are building. But this is business, and in business recognition should come in the form of growth, fantastic products, a strong team, and a company that keeps improving. That kind of recognition is earned every day — not on stage, but through decisions, execution, pressure, and consistency."

Here are three things we believe drove Nauris to earning this award.

Nauris is a lecturer at Riga Business School, where he helped create the module for the first fintech course in Latvia, taught across both the Business and Master's programmes. He is also part of the Baltic Finance Center movement, a collective effort to raise the standard of fintech leadership across the Baltics. The numbers behind this work speak for themselves: fintech courses rolled out across multiple Latvian universities, 29 faculty members trained, over 400 students engaged, and 13 Fintech Close-Up conversation series organised. He attends AI panels, follows where the industry is heading, and feeds that thinking back into the classroom. None of it was done for recognition. It was done because he genuinely believes that knowledge shared is how the next generation builds something worth building.

Nauris became CEO of TWINO a year ago, and the role came with a team to lead, a product to evolve, and a company to take forward. He has done all three. Under his leadership, TWINO has strengthened its foundations and launched new products, but what stands out is how he leads. He is hands-on, open, and direct. He brought AI into the company not as a buzzword but as a genuine shift in how the team works — investing in learning, upskilling, and making sure everyone is part of the journey.

He is competitive, curious, and passionate about what fintech in the Baltics can become. When he saw he was in the Top 3, he wanted to win, not for the trophy, but because he understands what recognition like this signals to the wider world. That serious companies are being built here. That talent is being developed here. That you do not need to be based in London or Berlin to lead at the highest level. That energy — restless, optimistic, community-driven — is what makes him the kind of leader this industry needs more of.

There is a bigger story inside this award. Through his leadership, Nauris is not only growing a company, he is demonstrating that fintech leaders can emerge from smaller countries and compete on a global stage.

The Baltic region already punches well above its weight. It leads Europe with the highest density of unicorns per capita, ahead of Singapore, Israel, and Luxembourg. But numbers only tell part of the story. What they do not capture is the culture of ambition, the commitment to education, and the community-first thinking that makes founders here different.

Nauris embodies all of it. And an award like this, from a jury of industry leaders across the Baltics, is a signal that the ecosystem sees it too.