Taxila Stone Partners with Airwallex to Accelerate Development of Design Super Center
Taxila Stone’s vision was a “one-stop shop” for designers, builders, and fabricators to buy stone slabs, tiles, and high-end kitchen cabinets from Italy, as well as appliances and furniture.
$70,000 saved
annually on bank fees
Stronger Vendor Relationship
4+ hours
saved each week from simplified processes
Taxila Stone is a wholesale supplier of stone slabs, tiles, and high-end kitchen cabinets from Italy, as well as appliances and furniture.
Location
Dallas, TX
Industry
Commercial Design
Company Size
10 - 20
Founded in 2020, Taxila Stone’s first warehouse started operations in January 2021. As the company began considering the construction of a second warehouse to meet increasing demand, CEO Hari Polavarapu noticed a gap in the marketplace waiting to be filled — a wholesale design super center for designers, builders, and fabricators. Filling that gap guided Taxila Stone along its growth path.
Managing the supply chain in a global business
Created a scalable and frictionless system to manage money globally
Taxila Stone keeps a lot of inventory on hand for its customers who are located in countries around the world. This means dealing with multiple suppliers, currencies, and shipping companies. The logistics of moving stone slabs, as well as furniture and appliances so they arrive undamaged requires a very hands-on approach to supply chain logistics. And complete transparency when tracking financial transactions with supply chain partners.
Hari Polavarapu
CEO, Taxila Stone
Airwallex saves us about $70,000 annually just in lower bank transfer fees.
Airwallex simplifies and reduces the cost of moving money
Before deploying the Airwallex platform, Taxila Stone found it difficult to keep track of payments to suppliers and from customers. There were often multiple banks involved, all of whom imposed of fees of between one and two percent as they processed their part of a transaction.
And, since the company purchased stone tile from more than 20 countries, it was often unclear what the currency exchange rates would be for any particular deal. Moreover, clients in some countries would only accept US dollars because their own currency was unstable, while many in Europe would accept only Euros.
With Airwallex, Polavarapu could lower transfer fees to .04 percent when paying suppliers and could make and accept payments in local currency. Currency exchange rates were also far lower through Airwallex. Taxila Stone moves about $1M a month. At that volume, Airwallex saves the company about $70,000 annually.
Hari Polavarapu
CEO, Taxila Stone
Airwallex is helping us build a stronger financial foundation for a growing global company. Their platform offers speed and transparency at a lower cost. We always know where our money is going and when it will get there with Airwallex.
Looking ahead — dual invoicing
Taxila Stone has foreign suppliers around the world that need to be paid. In a typical international payment, suppliers are very aware of currency exchange rates and volatility risks. In order to cover foreign exchange risk, they usually add a risk premium or margin of 1% to 5% to account for potential rate movement on US dollar (USD) invoices.
This is a scenario that Hari Polavarapu is very familiar with. To control his costs in these transactions, soon Taxila Stone will begin requesting dual invoices — one in US dollars and one in the supplier’s local currency. Airwallex gives its customers the ability to pay either in US dollars or the currency of the supplier. Paying in local currency is often far less costly
See how our customers are finding Airwallex
"Airwallex have been a fantastic partner for Olsam Group as we grow our eCommerce brands to new channels and new markets. Their easy to use interface and integrations have been a joy for our finance team to use as we scale."
Sam Horbye
Co-Founder, Olsam
"For ME + EM, expanding into international markets such as the US has been our focus - and with Airwallex, we were able to use their local USD Global Account to collect from our Paypal US account, thereby allowing us to save 3% on each transaction. The process of working with Airwallex has been seamless - our suppliers get paid quickly, we have a dedicated Relationship Manager who has been really patient, helpful and quick to respond. I am keen to use their cards to pay for our ad spend in the near future to save further on our USD invoices."
Meera
Finance Manager, ME + EM
"We've had such a fantastic experience switching to Airwallex. Previously we were using a traditional bank to make all of our international transactions and they'd constantly lock us out of the account everytime we made a transfer, resulting in hours and hours of lost time on hold. Airwallex is secure, makes it super quick and simple to make and receive international payments."
Rupert
Managing Director, Perspective Pictures
“We used to pay Stripe between $5,000 and $10,000 a month in conversion fees because most of our customers pay in dollars. Now we funnel that money into our Airwallex US dollar account, we don’t have to pay commission. We’ve saved more than $100,000 so far this year”
Thomas Adams
Founder and CEO, Brandbassador
"We love Airwallex! It has considerably eased our invoicing and payments to contractors around the world. Sending and receiving money is much faster and cheaper than before."
Edle Tenden
Co-Founder, Mobile Transaction
“We are so glad that we have found Airwallex! There are no hidden charges, they are quick to respond to any queries and we had the smoothest transaction with amazing support from the team continually.”
Andreia Beja
Supply Chain Executive, Miss Patisserie
"Our water solutions company, Dropterra (go.dropterra.com) has partnered with Airwallex since inception and it has been the best banking and payment partner a company can think of. International transactions are easy, secure, and fast, the technology is incredible and their client service fantastic! We look forward to growing and deepening our relationship with Airwallex!"
Francois Schramek
Co-Founder, Dropterra