Stryv speeds up its Asia expansion with a unified financial platform

One financial platform for multi-market, multi-channel growth 

Roy Ang founded Stryv in 2023 after noticing how Singaporeans were paying a premium for personal care electronics that cost far less elsewhere, for the same quality. Today, the brand has grown into a multi-category business spanning retail stores, eCommerce, and distribution partners across Asia.

For a challenger brand like Stryv, this level of scale requires more than well-timed product launches. It calls for financial infrastructure that can help the brand compete on the world stage. 

Instead of adding a new provider every time it entered a new market, with Airwallex, Stryv runs its entire financial operation – global accounts, payments, and spend – on one platform. Suppliers get paid faster, new markets launch sooner, and the finance team gets real-time visibility over cash flow across the entire business. But it wasn’t always this simple. 

The challenge

Stryv knew early on that physical retail would be central to its growth plan, but each new market meant rebuilding the company’s financial setup from scratch. 

Legacy banking slowed every market launch and supplier payment 

Opening local bank accounts required wet signatures and, in some cases, in-person branch visits by Roy himself. The whole process could take up to a month. By the time everything was in place, the go-to-market window had often already moved.

The same friction showed up in day-to-day operations. Supplier payments through traditional banks came with high fees and back-and-forth compliance checks, such that transfers often took over a week to land. Every payment delay stalled restocks, pushed back product launches, and cost the business sales. 

Roy Ang

Co-founder and CEO of Stryv

"Paying our suppliers took over a week through the banks, with high fees and compliance reviews on every transaction. And because our manufacturers only ship after payment clears, every delay pushes back our entire supply chain."

Payroll presented another side of the same problem. Sending salaries to staff across five markets meant absorbing close to S$30 in SWIFT fees per transaction. Settlement took 2–3 days at best, and in Taiwan, employees often had to collect their salary in person.

Managing spend across markets was complex and manual 

Targeted ad campaigns are critical for building awareness and driving traffic to Stryv’s online and offline channels, but the team had no centralised way to manage multi-market spend. One previous payment provider required them to meet a minimum spend before they could run an ad campaign.

The fallback was relying on personal credit cards to run ad campaigns across Meta, YouTube, and Google. But cards used across markets regularly triggered cross-border security flags, pausing active campaigns without warning.

The same challenges extended to other business expenses, from recurring subscriptions to operational purchases. Employees paid out of pocket and filed for reimbursement manually. Chasing receipts and matching claims cost the finance team close to 24 hours a month. There was no way to track how money was moving across the business until month-end closing. 

The solution

A hyper-growth business can only move as fast as its weakest link. For Stryv, that link was its finance stack. Rather than rebuilding it for every new market, Stryv consolidated its financial operations onto Airwallex.

Roy Ang

Co-founder and CEO of Stryv

"Airwallex is like a Swiss Army knife that we can bring with us as we expand. Before, every new market meant going to find a new service provider, setting up new accounts, new processes. For a business growing at our pace, that kind of rebuild every time you expand is just not sustainable."

Move money across markets on one unified platform

With Airwallex, Stryv can spin up local accounts for new entities and start transacting in days, not weeks.

Instead of routing payments through SWIFT, the team leverages Airwallex’s network of local rails in 120+ countries to keep the supply chain moving. The same infrastructure supports payroll to Stryv’s offshore workforce, with every transaction visible in a single dashboard. 

Track and control spend across every brand and market

Switching to Airwallex Corporate Cards for company spend means Stryv now gets dedicated employee cards to cover ad spend and business expenses. Transactions no longer get flagged, cashback gets accrued to the company, and the finance team manages expense approvals in one place. 

What was once scattered across separate tools, banks, providers, and spreadsheets now moves through Airwallex, giving the finance team a clear line of sight into cash flow at any moment.

The result

With Airwallex in place, Stryv has a stronger financial foundation for regional growth: 

• New accounts to receive and send payments like a local are ready in days, down from close to one month. 

• Up to S$30 saved per international transfer by routing payments through Airwallex’s local payment rails in 120+ countries. 

• Restock cycles shortened by three working days, as supplier payments now typically settle within the same day. 

• Overseas payroll lands within the same day, down from up to three working days. 

• Time spent on reconciliation is down by 50%, with every transaction across every market, brand, and channel visible from one dashboard. 

• Up to S$5,000 in monthly cashback by consolidating ad spend across the business on Airwallex Corporate Cards. 

Next, Stryv plans to connect Airwallex directly to its accounting software, NetSuite, automating reconciliation further as transaction volumes grow. 

With data from every market, brand, and channel in one place, the business is better positioned to automate more manual work and make faster decisions about capital, expansion, and growth.

Built to operate regionally from day one, Stryv now has financial infrastructure from Airwallex that can keep pace with its next phase of expansion.  

This publication does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice from Airwallex, nor does it substitute seeking such advice, and makes no express or implied representations / warranties / guarantees regarding content accuracy, completeness, or currency. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [[email protected]]. Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (201626561Z) is licensed as a Major Payment Institution and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.