Is there a realistic low-friction way for small businesses to connect their existing WhatsApp Business number to the API in Europe?
I’m building a SaaS solution for small business and am trying to understand the practical onboarding path for small businesses that already use WhatsApp as their main customer communication channel.
The use case is simple: a small local business already has a phone number in use, often on regular WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business App, and wants to connect that number to a more professional inbox/API setup without changing the number or going through a heavy enterprise-style verification process.
What I’m running into:
• Meta/Facebook account setup can be difficult, especially for people who don’t already use Facebook.
• Providers like Twilio seem to require a lot of business proof, website/company/LinkedIn-style verification, etc. and still need to setup an Meta/Facebook account to register their number there.
• For small owner-operated businesses, this feels like too much friction.
there must be easier solutions. The business model is to make onboarding as easy as possible. Not asking small business owners to go through extensive onboarding at Meta/Facebook to just register their number.