Fintech
okoora expands to Poland to support local businesses with cross-border currency transactions
Swiss-Israeli Fintech Startup okay now is continuing its European expansion by entering the Polish market. The fintech plans for its operations in Poland to eventually include offices for sales, marketing and customer support staff, as well as an R&D center to support its ongoing product development.
As okoora continues to expand across the European Union (EU), it hopes that its entry into Poland will help make it easier for Polish businesses to manage and execute cross-border currency transactions.
Okoora’s Automated Business Currency Management (ABCM™) platform enables businesses to manage the risks associated with currency exchange rate volatility. Additionally, okoora also offers Banking as a Service (BaaS) via APIs that enable fintechs, banks and other financial institutions to provide transactional foreign exchange banking services to their customers.
“We come to Poland with the belief that the market for currency management solutions can and should be disrupted. When okoora studied the European market, Poland scored highly due to its developed banking sector, high level of foreign trade and other relevant parameters,” he explained. Benjamin Abrahamfounder and CEO of okoora. “Poland also offers economic incentives that make it seem like a good idea to open an R&D center here. We believe this is the best place to kick off our European expansion.”
The expansion into Poland follows the opening of the company’s offices in Limassol, Cyprus, in 2023 with the primary goal of meeting EU regulatory compliance. However, Poland is the first sizeable European market where okoora intends to market and sell its services to the local business community.
The Success of FinTech in Poland
The Polish fintech scene is thriving, with 368 fintech companies based in Poland. International players such as Binance, Curve, Clarify, Revolution AND Tinkerbell all have offices or research and development centers in Poland.
The Polish financial services market is also the largest in the Central and Eastern European region. According to the European Central Bankthe value of assets in the Polish banking sector in 2021 amounted to EUR 564 billion. This figure is almost double the EUR 336 billion of the Czech Republic, which is the second largest in the region.
Polish banks are supposedly more agile and quicker in developing new software. In fact, in many cases, these banks were the first to adopt solutions such as mobile banking and digital payments, according to the ‘How to do FinTech in Poland 2023‘ relationship.
One reason why okoora chose Poland His next point of expansion was the fact that SMEs account for over 99 percent of all business activities in the country and are Okoora’s target group.
According to the analysis conducted by the government, SMEs are responsible for almost half of the GDP (45.3%). Polish Agency for Business Development. Exports account for about 50 percent of the total turnover of Polish SMEs, demonstrating their strong integration into global trade. This figure is significantly higher than the EU average, where exports account for about 30 percent of SME turnover.
“Another reason why Poland was chosen to start the expansion is the high value of transfers on the platform so far between the Israeli shekel and the Polish zloty: Poland is among the top 5 economies in the EU, ahead of economies such as Spain and France,” Avraham added.