Wanna

Breaking free from the banks

Wanna is an online-only B2C lending platform, and a fully owned subsidiary of Fintonic, an online marketplace connecting consumers and businesses with personalised financing options.

Success for lenders hinges on reliably collecting monthly repayments. On top of that, a fast-growing digital business like Wanna must be able to scale its processes without adding costs.

“Direct Debit is the natural payment option because almost everybody has a bank account, but not everyone has – or wants to use – a credit card,” said Sergio Sanchez, COO, Fintonic.

“Until a year ago we used our bank’s Direct Debit tools, but their inflexible processes and old school technology became a problem as we grew. We started looking for a partner more suited to the digital age. That’s how we found GoCardless.”

A flexible partner

As a fast-moving digital business, transparent and flexible partners are important to Wanna. But collecting Direct Debits using its bank meant it had to adapt its business to the bank’s rules – there was no scope for flexibility, little support and even less collaboration.

“It was just a case of these are the files you need to send, this is what you’ll get back – that’s the process, that’s how it is,” said Sergio. “When we had a support issue we never knew when we’d get an email back, and we could never reach the right person on the phone.”

The relationship with GoCardless couldn’t be more different.

“GoCardless feels like a real partner,” said Sergio. “They understand our business and are able to adapt processes to our situation, which is invaluable as we scale. We also always get a swift response from GoCardless on support issues, communication is consistent and timelines for any resolutions are always transparent.”

More time for product development

Support is not the only thing that’s quicker thanks to GoCardless. Cash lands in the bank faster and the time the team used to spend managing the bank’s processes can now be put to better use.

“We get paid twice as fast with GoCardless compared to our bank,” said Sergio.

Wanna also benefits from access to a dedicated GoCardless Customer Success Manager, who is a regular source of both payments and market intelligence.

“We get daily and weekly reports on various metrics regarding the health and performance of our payments,” said Sergio. “Our payments team also has a regular catch up with our GoCardless Customer Success Manager, where they can discuss new ideas and opportunities. The relationship is very close.”

A “wow” moment

International expansion is a key feature of Wanna’s growth plans so it needs a stable payments partner with global scale. GoCardless stood out immediately.

“We spoke to one provider that couldn’t support us internationally and another that didn’t have their own technology,” said Sergio. “But when I landed on the GoCardless website I thought ‘Oh wow’ – they have the track record, technology and reach we need.”

Things moved fast from there. An initial meeting was arranged within 24 hours of Sergio’s first email, and just one month later Wanna was getting paid with GoCardless. The actual integration itself took less than a week.

The secret to this success, according to Sergio, was the developer experience and close collaboration between two talented teams. “GoCardless has a team of amazing people who worked very closely with us, and the documentation and communication was super clear,” he said.

Today, Wanna collects roughly 3,000 payments a month, 90% of which are Direct Debits. It uses the GoCardless integration with the Tadosi management platform, which also enables the collection of other payment types, too.

“The GoCardless and Tadosi integration means we can accept and manage all payments through the same platform,” said Sergio. “It’s the same integration, the same technology.”

Flipping the switch on growth

Thanks to GoCardless, Wanna’s path to global expansion is a lot clearer than it was before.

“With GoCardless we won’t need to change our bank account or integrate any new processes when we expand abroad,” said Sergio. “It feels like we can just flip a switch when we’re ready to open in a new market.”

Sergio says this adds to the sense of security that comes with having GoCardless as a partner, which can be summed up by three factors.

“First and foremost, the GoCardless technology is really good,” he said. “Secondly, the team works very closely with us and it feels like we all speak the same language. And, finally, everything GoCardless does is fast – from the integration, to collecting payments, to responding to support issues.”