cogsflow rockets toward global and growth potential with Airwallex Yield and FX

cogsflow is an Aussie startup success story on a mission to empower eCommerce merchants. A tech platform which helps users effectively manage risk and cash flow, cogsflow helps businesses keep up their momentum by removing barriers to growth. 

“We exist to step into the gap between what merchants have and where they want to be,” says Co-Founder and CEO David Carbines. “We love founders and entrepreneurs doing great work, and the core question that motivates me and our team is; What can we do to make that work less risky, more fun, easier, and quicker?”

cogsflow has been on a rocketship trajectory since opening shop three years ago, and Airwallex is honoured to have been supporting them from day one.

David Carbines

Co-Founder & CEO

“2024 has been incredible for us. We’re growing at over 400% and Airwallex has been a key part of that story.”

We spoke to David about all things growth, including how his new adoption of Airwallex Yield – our powerful business savings solution – is helping his team shoot for big ambitions while operating lean and agile. 

Transcend borders from year one

Like many of our startup clients, cogsflow used Airwallex from their inception. Bypassing barriers to growth that often come with using a traditional finance solution, David was able to open the business with a global mindset.

“We've been spoiled in that we used Airwallex from the start. I don't have a counterfactual of what it was like in the dark days before Airwallex because we've always been operating in high def colour.” 

When hearing peers talk about FX misadventures, David couldn’t relate. Airwallex’s advanced transfer infrastructure empowers businesses to send and receive funds to 150+ countries and regions in 60+ currencies, with bank-beating rates. 

David Carbines

Co-Founder & CEO

“It’s made us a limitless company and it lets us dream and explore without stressing about FX. We were global from year one because of Airwallex… Airwallex lets us do business with almost anyone on the planet and that's really exciting.”

Throughout David’s experience with Airwallex, reliability was also a consistent factor. Operating outside of the traditional banking model, we pride ourselves on providing a service that our clients can trust.

“It's been really great to rely on Airwallex and know that we're working with a best-in-class provider,” says David.

A business savings solution that dominates the competition

Airwallex Yield is our answer to a traditional business saver. Yield gives businesses the opportunity to generate competitive returns in AUD and USD, with no minimum lock-up period. 

After a successful limited release in 2023, we launched Yield to all customers in July – David and cogsflow were the first cab off the rank. 

“I was an enthusiastic waitlist member and I'm not sure how many people I had to clamber over,” David laughs. “But I'm honoured to be number one.”

Prior to Yield, cogsflow was using an existing solution to generate returns, but it wasn’t meeting their expectations.

“We had an existing solution from CBA… I don't want to throw big yellow under the bus, but Airwallex is so much better… They have an applicable interest rate of .25% or .5%, while Airwallex is in the mid to high 3% – it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

David Carbines

Co-Founder & CEO

“It absolutely dominates the CBA solution that we had…I think we've earned more with Yield in a week than we did with CBA in a month... We really expect innovation like this to drive the market forward …I can't recommend it highly enough…”

How does it work? Airwallex invests into the JP Morgan Liquidity Funds, AAA rated money market funds with decades of strong performance. Your funds are held in a diversified portfolio that includes short-term, highly-rated securities. 

Since its mainstream launch, Yield has been massively embraced by SMEs Australia-wide. At the time of writing (9 Aug, 2024), smaller Australian businesses have placed over $20M in their Airwallex Yield accounts (on top of the existing $100M+ placed by businesses eligible for the limited release since October 2023).

“The nature of our business is that we have some swings with cash. Money is tight and every dollar counts for us and our clients. We expect our money to work as hard as we are, and the Airwallex Yield product helps us achieve that. Yield puts our money to work.”

David Carbines

Co-Founder & CEO

“As an organisation, our ambition is bigger than our resources. We're not going to compromise on ambition, we want to gather more resources and we want the things we have to work harder. We expect Yield to help us do that.”

Getting started and “moments of delight”

When you’re setting up a business, the last thing you want is to get bogged down in lengthy implementation processes. You want to get your tech stack up and firing as quickly as possible. Luckily the Airwallex interface was intuitive and straightforward for the cogsflow team. 

“Like most people these days, you start using something and then read the instructions later. I think it's pretty straightforward and clear, you see what you get and you get what you see.”

While slipping into business as usual operations is great, David also reflects on some moments which made getting started with Airwallex just that little bit more special. For David, this came with receiving our sleek Borderless Cards. 

“There are a couple of moments of delight that do come to mind. When we first received our cards and again, having had a renewal recently, that was pretty cool.”

“Our touch points with Airwallex are basically all online through the app. The web app and the mobile app are really great, but having the physical representation in our hands was fun. It's small but it was also pretty cool and fun. “

The cogs are turning on a big future

We’re thrilled to have played a part of Cogslow’s growth journey so far, and we know that it’s just the beginning of a long and successful partnership.

“Airwallex has been a really key part of our journey to date,” says David. “I Imagine we could have gotten where we are without Airwallex, but it would have taken us a lot more time and hassle. With Airwallex we’re able to keep focus on the really important things.”

Although Airwallex is now a global player, we will never forget our Australian roots. We’re also passionate about seeing other companies achieve a similar trajectory. There’s so many big ideas coming from down under, and cogsflow is the perfect example of that.

“We're excited to see what the future of financial services and payments and FX looks like and Airwallex is one of the key players there.” 

“It's kind of humbling to have a homegrown company that is a global leader. Stripe, PayPal, all of these international global payments giants – Airwallex is not just in the same breath as those folks but also kind of alongside them and I think leading them in many ways.”

Whether it be with Payments, API-driven environments or other innovations, we’re looking forward to supporting cogsflow more in the future as we both grow and evolve. With constant product releases and new capabilities, we’re excited to follow cogsflow into their next growth stage.

“I'm really excited for when we have this same conversation in a year or two’s time, I think we’ll be a long way away from where we are right now.”

Explore the potential of Yield and our powerful suite

Whether you’d like to explore growing your funds with Airwallex Yield, taking your business global with our Global Accounts or FX, or you just want to see what’s possible when working with one of the world’s fastest-growing fintechs – it’s easy to get started with Airwallex. 

Open your Business Account today and discover our advanced product suite.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is factual information only and doesn’t take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is important for you to read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for Airwallex Yield, which is available from Airwallex Capital Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 549026) at www.airwallex.com/au/terms and issued by K2 Asset Management Ltd (ABN 95 085 445 094, AFSL No. 244 393), a wholly-owned subsidiary of K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd. All investments carry risk. *Target returns of Airwallex Yield are net of fees as at 6 August 2024 and indicate past 1-day annualised returns of the relevant underlying JPMorgan Liquidity Funds.