Waylog takes on the supply chain cash crunch

Many fast-growing importers, wholesalers, and e-commerce businesses struggle with a common cash flow challenge: large amounts of capital are locked up in inventory, shipments, or supplier payment terms for months at a time.  This slows growth, limits flexibility, and makes it harder to seize new opportunities — especially for SMEs that don’t have easy access to traditional bank financing.

Waylog tackles this problem by freeing up capital tied up in the supply chain. 

I spoke to Oscar Masiello, UK Managing Director,  to learn more.  

Founded in 2023, the team saw a gap in the market for SMEs: “The normal banks didn’t quite catch up with the speed and growth of these types of companies,” contends Masiello.

“These clients grow fast, buy from the Far East, and lock a lot of their capital in the supply chain — which obviously harms their growth.”

Its core offering is simple: Waylog pays a company’s supplier immediately (or within agreed terms), and the company repays Waylog up to 120 days later.

By bridging this gap, Waylog enables businesses to maintain a cash reserve for operations and growth, rather than having it sit idle in banks or warehouses. Unlike some financing providers, the company doesn’t take equity stakes — its model is purely capital-based. Clients only pay for the credit limit they use and for the time they need it, offering far more flexibility than traditional lending.

Masiello contends that in supply chain importing, traditional banks still rely on PDFs back and forth, long processes, and a lot of manual work on both ends.

“We’re digital-first. We work with open banking and offer an online dashboard. Clients do everything themselves, and a lot of it is automated.

This reflects the fast pace of our clients. They generally prefer speed over anything else. Speed and simplicity have been the angle that’s moved the needle the most for us.”

Since its founding, the company has expanded into Finland and now has a primary UK focus. According to Masiello, the company has deployed around £50 million since we entered, “but there’s still a lot to do.”

The trade finance space is inevitably exposed to inflation and global trade disruptions, which can hit importers particularly hard. Yet, according to Masiello, younger companies often prove resilient. 

“Of course, inflation affects everyone — especially our clients,” he says.

“But younger companies are often doing something right. They know how to pivot. We see a lot of creative ways of solving problems in the short term. So yes, disruptions affect them at the highest level, but many of our clients find ways through it.”

Masiello believes the trade finance sector is still in its early stages, but is steadily evolving. Over time, he expects the market to shift further toward digitised processes for areas that were previously manual. 

“This is still a fairly new space, especially in banking terms,” he says. “

As companies like us and other lenders get a feel for the market, make mistakes, and learn from them, the foundation will get stronger over time.”