Lithuania’s national bank has instructed Accel-backed payments fintech kevin to not provide payment services to new clients until it complies with reporting requirements.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Bank of Lithuania said it reached the decision after the Lithuanian startup failed to submit its financial statements on time, and said it has appointed auditing company Valentas as a “supervisor” to kevin.
As supervisor, Valentas will be responsible for assisting in the delivery of the startup’s financial accounts for 2023, with a deadline of August 30 2024. Valentas will have to approve “all decisions of the institution's managers related to the activities of Kevin EU, UAB,” the Bank of Lithuania said; although it added that the supervisor “does not take over the management of the institution”.
The Bank of Lithuania posted a press release on its website which says: “Kevin EU, UAB, is almost four months late in submitting the audited annual financial statements, postponed their submission deadline many times, does not provide the auditors with the necessary information to complete the audit, does not comply with the requirements of equity capital adequacy [and] does not ensure adequate internal control.”
In 2021, kevin raised a $65m Series A from investors including Accel and Eurazeo. Earlier this year, Sifted also reported that the startup raised an additional $25m from existing backers.
The institution added that it’s acting “due to the threat to the safe and reliable activities of kevin, and the interest of consumers”.
Kevin wasn’t immediately available for comment by the time of publication.
