London-based FinTech wamo has raised $5 million to develop small to medium-sized business (SMB)-focused banking solutions.
In addition to the growth investment, CEO and founder Yanki Onen said on the company blog Thursday (July 18), wamo has also obtained its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license.
“Together, they equip us with the license and tools to develop even more innovative fintech products and support more customers in more markets with greater speed and efficiency, ready to meet your growing business needs,” Onen said.
He said the funding will allow wamo to integrate new solutions like invoicing, accounting and credit, allowing business owners to focus on running their business, while the EMI license sets the stage for an easier expansion in Europe.
“From the very beginning, our vision has been to break down SME barriers to growth, and, through prioritizing customer-centric support, to revolutionize how businesses access financial services,” wrote Onen.
“We sought to make business accounts more accessible, transparent and inclusive. We saw the untapped potential to leverage emerging technology to innovate and improve the banking experience, and set out to create an agile platform that could continue evolving and leverage these advancements to unlock new opportunities for your business.”
Elsewhere in the SMB financing space, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week about embedded lending, which can help these businesses grow and enjoy smooth operations in spite of unstable cash flows.
“However, PYMNTS Intelligence’s latest study finds that relatively few microbusinesses and small businesses currently take advantage of this lending solution,” that report said. “In fact, fewer than one in five respondents used it in the last year. The data highlights unmet needs for access to lending, especially among microbusinesses.”
The research — “How Embedded Lending Can Boost Growth and Stability for Small Businesses,” a PYMNTS Intelligence report commissioned by Visa — found that more than 7 in 10 of these businesses that used this lending solution in the past year reported high satisfaction with their available business credit tools.
Additional research by PYMNTS Intelligence from earlier this year showed that a third of Main Street business owners said loan costs remained a concern, with 90% of SMBs saying they had relied on at least one type of borrowing tool through 2023.
And nearly three-quarters of these businesses had turned to revolving credit products — such as credit cards and lines of credit — making these the most popular borrowing method.
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