Podcast August 30, 2022

From money management to investing, building a super app with Edoardo Moreni

Imagine an agile, accessible super app that combines every financial vertical in one place.

Budgeting, analytics, payments, investing, savings, whatever you want to do with your money, it’s all there at your fingertips. Emma is introducing vast new realms of opportunity to its rapidly growing user base.

Joining the show for his second appearance is the energetic Co-Founder and CEO, Edoardo Moreni — one of my favorite former guests — a visionary entrepreneur with a Masters in computer engineering.

This time around, we discuss:

  • Vital lessons for founders
  • Why concept goes a long way toward securing funding
  • Listening to customers and effectively executing their vision
  • The evolving investment opportunities in this uncertain market

Lessons for founders

Emma is an all-in-one super app designed to allow customers that brings every financial vertical to enable customers to address all of their financial needs in one location — everything from financial education to long-term investments. It operates on a subscription model and consistently ranks in the top 20-30 finance apps in the UK.

The goal is to be a one-stop shop, which means that Emma’s lean product development team are tasked with continually updating and improving the app, ensuring that no financial need is ever out of reach for their users. This means continuously launching new components to address every conceivable use case.

It’s a lot of work.

But therein lies the biggest lesson Edoardo says all founders should take to heart before launching their Fintech products:

Ship as fast as possible and improve based on feedback. 

Operating with this agile mindset is the only way Emma could feasibly address every financial demand their users may make. If you wait for everything to be perfect and flawlessly address every conceivable need a user may face, then by the time you ship, the market may have moved on before you even start.

Similarly, getting real-world feedback from users has allowed Emma to draw upon its user base and prioritize based on the most pressing needs early adopters are facing.

From concept to funding

The strength of Emma’s approach and their long-term goals to build an all-in-one super app has been a boon for the company’s funding needs.

Edoardo says that this strength of concept has saved the company immensely as they have had to spend zero money on marketing — and their growing base of users has proven that strength

It led Emma to being featured at a few critical industry events, which in turn led to an even deeper pool of users. And the good press from a partnership with Amazon early in their story deepened that pool further still.

Ultimately, this led to a virtuous cycle whereby the company’s user base — and its validation of the strength of Emma’s long-term goals and approval of their continuous improvement efforts — drew in more and more investors, which in turn drew in more users. This has helped ensure the company always has enough resources to keep surprising and delighting its customers as they address every conceivable financial need they may have.

Put simply: Emma’s ability to always address the financial needs of its users keeps the company from ever worrying about its own financial needs.

Realizing the customer vision

Emma’s commitment to realizing the customer vision has meant that the company has never been stuck wondering: What should we do next?

Instead, Edoardo says, the company is much more focused on the how behind their next move.

For instance, Edoardo says the recent move into investments was a no-brainer — its users demanded investment functionality, so they worked tirelessly to provide it to them.

And with today’s financial uncertainty, that’s needed more than ever.

Evolving opportunities in uncertain markets

Edoardo points to today’s rising inflation and uncertain market conditions as an opportunity for Fintechs such as themselves to go above and beyond for their users, rather than an excuse to stagnate. And that outlook is something that, ultimately, the company is passing on to users.

Emma’s goal to be the only financial app its users ever need means the company has to provide the kind of value to its customers such that users will be as confident as Edoardo is in the face of turbulent financial times. Emma’s expertise is what keeps them able to steadily build a happy and comparably expert-level user base.

It’s another reason why Edoardo says that the recent foray into long-term investments was a foregone conclusion. Customers needed ways to shore up their financial health and combat recent downturns and out-of-control inflation. The best ways to tackle these conditions are found by making sound long-term investments — so the company helped its customers do just that.

In the end, by helping customers make long-term investments in their future, Emma is investing in its own long-term financial success.

To ensure that you never miss an episode of Payments Innovation, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here, and don’t forget to check out our YouTube!

Until next time!

 

Find Your Bold

Currencycloud is here to back you as you leap boldly into the future. Get in touch with an expert today.

Get Started