wamo, the local fintech company that’s getting everywhere fast

While personal banking has been revolutionised over the past five to ten years, with industry disruptors offering services which make managing money for individuals as convenient and tech-intuitive as sending a text message, business banking has arguably remained stuck in the past, with only superficial changes noticeable.

Opening and maintaining a business account can still be challenging, costly and time-consuming, and, even once established, rarely offers an engaging user experience or levelled-up capabilities in the form of new and innovative tools for enterprise. This can be especially frustrating for small and micro-business owners who often manage their finances independently, and who can, in many cases, find themselves unable to qualify for a business bank account.

Introducing wamo — a solution for managing finances and making and receiving payments, neatly rolled into an easy-to-use app. wamo is fast positioning itself as the champion account for micro and small businesses, and seems determined to make these vital activities easy, user-friendly and affordable for everyone. 

Yanki Onen, the company’s Founder and CEO, is guided by principles of minimising obstacles and inequality, instead seeking to maximise useability and community spirit. “Entrepreneurs deserve all the help they can get,” explains Onen, “especially now, when the service, retail and hospitality industries have had to really dig deeply to successfully navigate the recent pandemic. We are very aware of the challenges these sectors face, and are passionate about making affordable and effective solutions accessible to everyone.” 

Using wamo, anyone can open a business account in under fifteen minutes — provided they have a valid ID document and the application is able to validate their identity. Once this step is completed, numerous game-changing features of a wamo account are made available to the business owner for immediate deployment. 

Unlike a traditional business bank account, wamo makes it possible for account holders to open a limitless number of sub-accounts, which can then be used for a wide array of applications — for example, allocating accounts per employee, project or income stream, or however else might best suit the business. In addition, account owners can issue both virtual and physical cards to team members and link each card to a sub-account, further streamlining financial management and making it considerably easier to oversee team spending. The days of sharing a single business account card or scribbling reminders to claim back expenses at the end of the month may, it seems, finally be over.

It is wamo’s payments solution, however, that is proving to be its most popular feature with small business owners. QR code technology makes it possible to take payments without requiring a POS machine, contactless payment app or dealing in cash. The advantages of this should not be underestimated, leading to considerable savings on the initial outlay and associated running costs of POS machines. Businesses such as bars, takeaways and other merchants offering smaller items and low-cost services, in particular, stand to gain from deploying wamo payment solutions, due to their characteristically frequent yet smaller transactions (so-called ‘micro payments’) which incur fees on a per-transaction basis. 

This innovative approach to payments solutions is embodied in the imminent launch of wamo’s new QR menu, that will allow restaurant-goers to order and pay directly from their tables using their phones. This unique approach combines a digital menu with an integrated payments system, promising to streamline the customer experience as well as delivering significant time and labour savings to businesses. Watch this space.

wamo was the solution of choice for Cirque du Soleil’s Malta production manager, Kurt Borg, who explains that, “when organising productions of this size, it's great to find services that make life simpler. wamo gave us the opportunity to control payments and spending in a way that is totally transparent, paperless and cash-free.” 

The fintech industry — the deployment of computer software and other technologies to support financial services — has gained significant traction over the last two years, delivering valuable innovation and time-saving features to users across the world. wamo has positioned itself as a key leader in this field, having shown vital understanding of the difficulties facing small business owners, entrepreneurs and sole traders, and, crucially, proposing elegant new solutions to these unique challenges. 

“If we want to make real progress, we need to rethink how we do things”, Yanki Onen emphasises. “Business finance is primed to move beyond the confines of the banks — the technology is there, the security is good and the market is open to new ideas... We’re here and we’re absolutely ready.”

The wamo app can be downloaded from the iOS App Store or Google Play.