In just two days Wally, a smartphone app available on Apple's iTunes, clocked up 8,000 downloads. It is already the number one app in six European countries and the Dubai-based developers of the personal finance app have more reason to celebrate after winning the top "start-up demo" award at the Arabnet Digital Summit in Beirut.
"We have managed to get the downloads without any advertising or anything," said Saeid Hejazi, the chief executive and co-founder of Wally. "People are looking for what we have created."
Wally tracks a user's financial expenditure. It logs expenses with details on the amount, venue and category. It also has a scanning feature that extracts all the data directly from a receipt.
The company is hoping to build on the success of the iTunes store so far and launch the app on other platforms.
"Android is next, soon as we can put our engineers on it, but we are limited in resources because we're a start-up," said Mr Hejazi.
The small team is split between Dubai and Beirut. As part of their award, the Lebanese developer Solidere has offered the company one year's free rent at Cloud 5 in Beirut, an incubator and acceleration hub for entrepreneurs.
"The idea for Wally is to give users a 360-degree view of their financial situation. Right now we help them capture what goes out. Our next plan is to capture what they make, their income and help them compare the two," said Mr Hejazi.
The app took nine months to build, but the company now has a to-do list that will take two years to complete, according to Mr Hejazi.
