A few days ago we were in Tallinn, Estonia at Latitude59 running between stages, meetings, coffees, side events and late-night conversations wondering how all of this suddenly became real.

Somewhere in the middle of all of it, tapaya. became the FINITIV Country Winner at the Mastercard Lighthouse Startup Showcase and finished as one of the six finalists in this year’s Mastercard Lighthouse Programme.

Honestly, it still feels a little surreal.

Over the few days we met founders, banks, acquirers, PSPs and infrastructure teams from across the Baltics and Nordics discussing what the future of payments could actually look like over the next few years.

A huge part of the conversations focused on:

• software-based payments

• modern onboarding

• payment flexibility

• reducing hardware dependency

• the future of developer-first payment infrastructure

For us, those conversations mattered just as much as the competition itself.

One thing that stood out throughout the event was the energy around the Mastercard Lighthouse community. Open, supportive and genuinely collaborative. People were sharing real experiences, real challenges and helping each other think bigger.

That is rare.

Of course, there were also the moments behind the scenes that nobody really sees online. The rushed coffees before pitching. Last-minute deck edits. Walking between venues trying to process everything happening at once. Random late-night conversations that somehow turn into the most valuable parts of the trip.

Those moments are usually where the real magic happens.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us throughout the week and thankful to Mastercard Lighthouse, the organizers and everyone we had the chance to meet along the way.

Tallinn left us tired, inspired and even more excited about what comes next for tapaya.

Thank you for following the journey so far and reach out anytime.