Meet Yanki Onen, CEO at Digital Account Provider: wamo

Tell us about wamo 

 

wamo is a digital business account provider and growth partner for SMEs. Our mission is to break down the barriers that SMEs face when growing their business in the UK and EU so they can reach their potential.

In a world where SMEs are underserved by banks, we provide access to a digital business account within 24 hours to make managing money easy. Through human-led customer support and access to a marketplace of partners, we promote, not discourage, the ambitions of SMEs. 

 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company? 

 

It all started when I was trying to open a UK business account for a previous venture of mine. It was then that I realised how broken the system was for aspiring entrepreneurs. To get a business account you have to deal with strict bank rules, endless paperwork and a lot of red tape. What was more frustrating was that when I needed support, I was forced to speak to a chatbot, when what I really needed was simply to speak to a human.

This strict, distant and painful experience is what led me to start wamo. I wanted to give SMEs access to the tailored financial products and personal guidance they need to thrive. I had prior experience working in the banking and financial services industry, and thought why not take on the challenge myself? 

 

 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 

Since we started our journey in 2018, we’ve witnessed a number of milestones. We’re proud of the $6.8 million in seed funding we’ve raised from investors so far, which allows us to keep scaling the business.

We’re constantly evolving our offering in line with the challenges faced by SMEs. We started out with a digital business account, but within the last year we have been building a wider ecosystem for SMEs. Our marketplace, wamo Connect, provides customers with instant access to a marketplace of partners, including HubSpot and Shopify, offering exclusive products and services at discounted rates. We pride ourselves on being a growth partner for SMEs and this is really what is driving the development of our offering. 

 

What can we hope to see from wamo in the future?

 

We have a number of exciting plans on the horizon. This includes a series of partnerships lined up to strengthen our offering and reach new users. At the product level, one of the biggest challenges facing our customers right now is access to short term credit, so we’re working hard to develop a solution that simplifies this for SMEs.  Our aim is to give SMEs more flexible access to funding to help them through this period of economic uncertainty.

Alongside that we’re looking to build in other features such as FX to better support our customers. Elsewhere we’re also on the road towards a Series A funding round, as we continue to scale our offering and the markets we operate in. I’m proud of the momentum that the team has built in the last five years, but we’re still only at the start of this journey. We want to advocate SMEs as much as possible and that is what is going to keep us driving forward.