Why we partnered with Wamo

Europe has 26 million small and medium-sized businesses. The overwhelming majority of them are still banking with institutions built for a different era. That gap—between what SMEs need and what traditional banks deliver—is the opportunity Wamo is built to capture. It is why we invested.

A Market Ready to Move

Despite making up 99% of all European businesses and making up the majority of economic activity, only around 25% of SMEs currently use digital banking, a rate that lags far behind consumer adoption and behind the United States. The growth potential continues to be huge. Traditional banks still require anywhere from 90 to 120 days to onboard a business account. Their fee structures are opaque. Their digital tools were designed for retail customers, not businesses managing payroll, FX, and supplier payments simultaneously.

The result is a market in motion. Surveys consistently show that a significant portion of European SMEs are actively considering switching their primary bank. The most cited motivations—faster onboarding, better digital experience, easier access to credit, and lower costs—are precisely where fintechs have a structural advantage. Industry forecasts expect digital banking penetration among SMEs to triple by 2030. The window to build a meaningful share is open now, and, thanks to the size of the market, it doesn’t require an unproductive competition with larger digital banks. 

Win Where Others Aren't Looking

Rather than chasing market share head-on against Revolut and Qonto in their home markets, Wamo has taken a more deliberate path: establishing deep, localised positions in geographies that the major players have deprioritised—Malta, Italy, and the Nordics.

The results validate the strategy. In Malta, we estimate that Wamo has captured close to 10% of the SME market. In Italy, the company has grown quickly, with its POS offering alone attracting a significant portion of its all-time customer base within just three months of launch. In Finland, a partnership with Froda saw Wamo's new lending product issue its first tranche of business loans within two weeks of a soft launch.

The product itself is built to address the pain points that drive SMEs away from traditional banks: digital onboarding completed within 24 hours, multi-currency business accounts with local IBANs, competitive FX rates, physical POS terminals, business lending, and integrations with accounting software. Customer satisfaction scores sit on par with larger competitors, and user reviews consistently highlight ease of use and responsive support as standout strengths.

Traction Speaks for Itself

Wamo's financial trajectory is one of the strongest indicators we have that the model is working. The company nearly tripled its monthly revenue in 2025, driven by a consistent and scalable customer acquisition engine that has delivered around 14% month-on-month growth in its customer base over the past year.

Revenue has also grown significantly faster than headcount, with revenue per employee increasing by more than half. That is the operational leverage signature of a business that has found its model and is beginning to scale it.

The revenue mix adds further quality to the picture. Wamo earns across subscriptions, card interchange, FX, interest income, POS, and SWIFT—a diversified set of monetisation vectors that reduces concentration risk and increases revenue per customer as the product suite deepens.

An ‘All-In’ Team

Founder Yanki Onen has more than a decade of experience in financial services, spanning treasury operations, FX trading, and banking. He has invested personally in the company’s success, assembled a high-calibre team against the odds of an early-stage fintech, and demonstrated crisis-tested leadership—when Wamo’s original banking partner collapsed, and customer accounts were frozen, the team navigated the situation without losing its foundation.

Alongside Yanki, co-founder Deniz Guven brings exceptional credentials. As the founding CEO of Mox Bank—Hong Kong’s first digitally licensed virtual bank—and a former EVP at Standard Chartered across 33 countries, Deniz has built and scaled digital financial institutions at precisely the level Wamo is now approaching. His growing operational involvement in the business is a significant asset for the next phase of growth.

The wider team follows the same logic. COO Grant Saunders brings European financial services experience from prior work alongside Yanki. Country managers in Italy and the Nordics are seasoned local operators, not parachuted generalists. The board includes Paul Pester, former CEO of TSB and chair of Tandem Bank, providing direct insight into the European banking market. This is a team that has thought carefully about how to build locally and scale regionally.

A Consolidating, Competitive Market

European banks are under real pressure. Branch networks have shrunk dramatically over the past decade, yet the digital infrastructure to replace them, particularly for business customers, has not kept pace. SME banking remains one of the most profitable segments in retail banking, and incumbents know they are losing it. The strategic response is increasingly M&A rather than internal development: buying a modern, licensed platform is faster and less risky than building one, particularly when the regulatory and operational complexity of serving businesses across multiple European jurisdictions is taken into account.

The data bears this out. Disclosed deal value in European fintech M&A nearly doubled in the first half of 2025 compared to the whole of 2024. Acquirers are specifically targeting the “maturing middle tier”; companies with proven product-market fit, a clear path to profitability, and operational infrastructure that can be absorbed quickly. BNP Paribas acquired Kantox and Floa. Société Générale acquired the SME-focused neobank Shine. The pattern is consistent and accelerating.

Wamo sits precisely in the crosshairs of this dynamic. Its EMI licence, multi-country operational footprint, SME customer base, and proven go-to-market engine in markets that larger players have not yet prioritised make it a compelling acquisition target. Importantly, the markets Wamo has built in are markets where incumbents have unfinished business and where digital challengers have not yet consolidated. That creates a strategic urgency for potential acquirers: moving early means acquiring both the platform and the market position, before someone else does.

At Oleka Capital, our background in B2B fintech and international market expansion means we are well-placed to support Wamo through this period. We are proud to back a team that has built a competitive product and strong customer service, and positioned itself at the centre of one of the most active strategic conversations in European financial services.