Jason Simon offers an expert’s take on how OMNi and its Super App have changed the Costa Rican lifestyle

Thanks to the possibilities that OMNi’s super app delivers to Costa Rica right on users’ smartphones, gone are the days of having to hail a cab or stand in line to withdraw funds from an ATM. Today, consumers demand mobility solutions that are accessible, and that’s where OMNi, a FinTech startup comes in. It guarantees solutions, managing to simplify the lives of all users, and FinTech and eCommerce expert Jason Simon explains how.

OMNi’s super app makes it possible to conduct a range of activities from one place and without having to carry physical money. Renting a bike, hailing a cab, paying for goods or services and even applying for a loan can be done right through the app. OMNi’s first line was its famous bicycles, which are available to the public through the super app and which are enabled in the center of San José. However, that line is intended to expand into the rest of the GAM (the greater metropolitan area around the Costa Rican capital city) shortly. But, since then, it has expanded to offer a lot more value to consumers.

OMNi stated, “At OMNi, the center of any business decision revolves around actively listening to our users and the security of offering them the same lifestyle as first-world societies. We started by giving them the power to manage their finances and moved on with providing our customers with a digital wallet. We offered them money transfer methods without phantom commissions and, finally, we gave them the possibility of paying for their purchases in shops with a QR code.”

With the same digital wallet, the super app, consumers can also access taxi services and, in the future, will venture into other mass media and public services, such as buses. Trials are already underway to incorporate digital payments for bus fares, which will allow Costa Rica to enhance safety and security with its massive public transportation system.

For example, in OMNi taxis, consumers know in advance who will pick them up and what the driver’s qualifications are, as well as contribute to the experiences in public services improve. But, it is also essential that cities adapt to the needs of displacement, both for leisure, work and others. Mobility is at the heart of the economy and cities can’t forget that the private sector, such as through the solutions OMNi’s super app provide, can also collaborate.

“The private sector has the ability to implement many of the digital changes faster, designed towards people,” says Simon. “Public policies are conceived through those needs and the authorities must recognize that there are delays in public services, while private enterprise has the capability of advancing innovation and digitalization quicker and with less resistance than the government-backed efforts.”

OMNi’s goal, which it has achieved, was to become a one-stop super app for Costa Rica. It gave businesses advertising of their products or services through its platforms so that they had more interested customers. Adds Fonseca, “To the owners of these shops, we freed them from the unlimited commissions that the banks impose on them for each of their sales, giving them greater freedom in their income streams in times where every dollar counts. People saw their reality changed when moving around the city, and now they have an alternative means of transport with OMNiBicis and a way to move with total freedom in OMNiTaxi.”