A
start-up was set up in Milan less than two years ago to supply digital payment
services in order to simplify and improve cash flow, increase earning potential
and improve customer experience. The objective is to enter the sector of
notable expenses for small business owners, helping clients cope with
expenditure for the well-being of people, animals, homes and vehicles. For FARE
INSIEME STARTUP, Giampaolo Colletti interviewed Gianluca Cocco and Gaetano De
Maio, respectively CEO and COO at Qomodo
FARE
INSIEME STARTUP is the spin-off of the FARE INSIEME project dedicated to
presenting some businesses that form part of the Primo Ventures portfolio, a
company that manages funds specialising in the digital sector and new space
economy. Confindustria Emilia has started up a partnership with Primo Ventures
with the objective of providing its associates with new opportunities for
growth thanks to the presentation of the most innovative start-ups on the
market. Here are some of their stories.
di Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
This is an incredible story. I am telling you this
because we will hear wonderful things. But it is best to start with the name -
Qomodo, with the accent on the first “o”. It is a start-up that aims to become
a collection partner for all business owners. It was set up in Milan less that
two years ago to supply digital payment services so as to simplify and improve
cash flow, increase earning potential and improve customer experience. The
objective: to enter the sector of notable expenses for small business owners,
helping clients cope with expenditure for the well-being of people, animals,
homes and vehicles. “Dentists, veterinarians, beauty salons, healthcare and
specialist examination centres, gyms, tyre shops, garages, opticians. We decide
the category, then contact the businesses and suggest our solution. They get
the cash immediately, while we take care of the instalments. We focus mainly on
the fact that these businesses know their clients in person, so they will be
the ones to suggest Qomodo as a solution for interest-free instalment
payments,” clarify Gianluca Cocco and Gaetano De Maio, respectively CEO and COO
of this business that in a short time has become part of the Italian innovation
eco-system. In fact, during the first semester of 2022, the start-up processed
€34.5 million - part investments and part cash to finance business working
capital. “What pleases us the most is the quality of the investors who have
believed in us,” reported Cocco and De Maio.
Identikit of the
founders. The two 30 year olds were already seasoned
professionals and became start-uppers due to their passion. The idea came to
them after twelve months and they started to work on it, however they had known
each other for a long time. But we should proceed in an orderly fashion.
Gaetano is 36 and was born in Avellino. He graduated in Economics at the
Bocconi University and boasts a healthy obsession for doing things, a sort of
constant curiosity: getting to know the world and smashing the world, he often
repeats. And he did travel the world for work, between Malaysia, Philippines,
Germany and the UK. “Before turning 30, I decided to return to Italy,” he
recalls. Gianluca is also 36, he was born in Genoa but grew up in Tortona, in
southern Piedmont. His family is half from Abruzzo and half from Piedmont. He
studied Mechanical Engineering in Pavia and then at the Polytechnic in Milan.
“I immediately understood I did not want to be an engineer. I worked for
Amazon, then for Foodora in Italy until 2018, which was then sold to Glovo.
There I understood I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” reminisces Gianluca. The
two met in 2017, when they both worked for that innovation giant called Rocket
Internet. “We had always tried to get to know each other at Rocket Internet. We
had never seen each other and met after a contact on LinkedIn. We grabbed a cup
of coffee together and, evidently, something clicked. We kept in touch and
eventually started to work together,” they explain. But the right moment did
not come right away, things took some time. They met again in Milan on a cold
foggy night at the end of January 2022. How
are things going? Shall we do something together? And so the business was
born, starting from an idea that is very simple to explain, yet rather complex
to carry out. “We listen to the market. We want to sell fintech products to
physical businesses, even though it is a market where distribution is very
difficult.”, they explain. The start-up recalls the now very popular services
forming part of the “buy now, pay later” phenomenon. “But, unlike all the
others dealing with extended consumption, our services focuses on expenses that
are important in a family budget, the essential ones consisting of a
considerable amount and at times unexpected,” explains Cocco and De Maio. Once
again, the idea is what makes a difference, when it intercepts market
evolutions.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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