RYSE optimizes its cross-border finances and saves big with Airwallex
Discover how RYSE transformed complex cross-border finances into streamlined, cost-saving, and efficient global operations with Airwallex.
$25,000+ annual savings
on foreign exchange expenses with Airwallex
Instant transfers
between US and Canadian entities
$0 in additional fees
on batch payments processed
RYSE created the first retrofit device to motorize window shades, making automation accessible to homeowners, renters, and buildings. Its innovative SmartShades saves energy by managing solar heat and daylight, reducing cooling and lighting costs. While RYSE excels in product innovation, operating across borders brought financial complexities like slow transfers and high FX costs. With Airwallex, RYSE has streamlined its finances, driving efficiency and growth.
Industry
Computers and electronics manufacturing
Company size
11 – 50 employees
Location
Toronto, Canada
Trung Pham
Founder and CEO, RYSE
“I recommend that every Canadian business open an Airwallex account,” says Pham, Founder and CEO. “I’m very direct about this — I’ve worked with all the fintechs and traditional banks in Canada, and Airwallex is the best.”
From smart homes to smart finances: The RYSE story
Canadian-born RYSE, founded in 2015, is redefining the future of smart homes with their next-generation smart window coverings devices. These energy-efficient retrofit devices motorize window blinds, shades, and curtains, offering an affordable alternative to costly replacements. RYSE combines innovation with practicality to create solutions for the tech-focused homes of tomorrow.
Operating with a borderless vision, RYSE is focused on delivering innovative solutions while expanding its global reach. For Founder and CEO Trung Pham, sustaining growth means not only revolutionizing smart home technology but also optimizing the company’s operational infrastructure to enable seamless global operations.
Airwallex has become a key enabler in this journey, providing the financial agility needed to support RYSE’s mission of innovation and expansion. By removing financial barriers, Airwallex helps RYSE maintain its focus on driving growth in the smart home market.
The challenge
As a business operating across Canada and the US, RYSE faced significant challenges in managing its financial operations. With 90% of its revenue in USD but expenses and investments often in CAD, frequent currency conversions were costly and complex. Additionally, manufacturing in China introduced the need for regular international transfers, further complicating cross-border workflows.
Managing these transactions required relying on a mix of fintech platforms and traditional banks, but these solutions often fell short. Wire transfers were slow and resource-intensive, requiring manual intervention. Partial solutions like Wise lacked critical features, such as instant transfers between entities or batch payment capabilities without costly fees, leaving RYSE with inefficient and fragmented financial workflows.
Trung Pham
Founder and CEO, RYSE
“We needed a platform that could simplify all these processes, save us money, and allow us to operate efficiently across borders.”
The fragmented financial tools created inefficiencies and hindered RYSE’s ability to scale effectively, making it clear that a more integrated and robust solution was essential for the company’s long-term growth.
The solution
RYSE turned to Airwallex to streamline its cross-border financial operations and overcome the hurdles of traditional banking systems. With Airwallex, the team consolidated its financial tools into a comprehensive platform, removing silos and simplifying workflows for seamless management of its US and Canadian entities.
Airwallex’s multi-currency Business Account, which enables businesses to hold, manage, and convert funds across multiple currencies in a single account, replaced cumbersome wire transfers, allowing RYSE to manage USD and CAD transactions instantly and efficiently. This eliminates the need for multiple bank accounts and reduces conversion fees, streamlining financial operations. Batch payment functionality adds another convenience layer, enabling RYSE to process multiple payments simultaneously without additional fees, saving time and reducing manual workload.
The team also uses Airwallex Borderless Cards to enhance spending control. By assigning unique cards to service providers, RYSE streamlines expense tracking, improves security, and reduces manual effort.
“I can assign a specific card to each service provider, like software subscriptions, to make managing expenses easier,” Pham explains. “If a card is ever compromised, I can simply cancel that card without having to update the payment details for every service provider. It’s a best practice that saves a lot of time and hassle."
Additionally, the ability to specify payment and receiving currencies via Payouts provides greater flexibility, simplifying cross-border transactions.
With Airwallex integrated into its financial operations, RYSE has the tools to scale efficiently, unlocking new growth opportunities across global markets.
Trung Pham
Founder and CEO, RYSE
“Airwallex is like if Brex and Wise merged,” says Pham. “It has all the banking capabilities of Brex and all the foreign currency capabilities of Wise.”
The results
Centralized operations with reduced FX costs
RYSE uses Airwallex’s multi-currency accounts to collect all USD and CAD sales from Amazon and Shopify, streamlining revenue collection and simplifying cash flow management. By leveraging Airwallex’s competitive foreign exchange rates, RYSE saves $25k annually in FX costs. With the company’s rapid growth, these savings are set to increase significantly.
Faster, low-cost payments
With Airwallex’s global payout capabilities, RYSE can quickly and cost-effectively pay suppliers and contractors worldwide. Payments are executed in local currencies, reducing fees and improving speed.
Streamlined expense management
Airwallex Borderless Cards allow RYSE to assign specific cards to individual service providers, enabling quick replacements if a card is compromised and improving overall security.
Scalable solutions for global growth
As RYSE expands to new markets like Europe and Australia, Airwallex supports the company’s need for efficient currency conversions and global financial operations. The platform’s scalability ensures that RYSE can easily manage increasing transaction volumes and complex financial requirements.
“I recommend that every Canadian business open an Airwallex account,” says Pham. “I’m very direct about this — I’ve worked with all the fintechs and traditional banks in Canada, and Airwallex is the best.”
Simplifying finances and empowering RYSE to scale globally
Trung Pham
Founder and CEO, RYSE
“What I tell people is, screw everything else — just use Airwallex. Trust me. Airwallex is a vital part of the tech stack, especially for Canadian corporations. When starting a business, you think, ‘What tools do I need?’ Slack is for internal communication, Asana is for project management, Google Drive or Dropbox is for your cloud, and Airwallex is your financial partner. It’s a no-brainer.”
With Airwallex, RYSE saves time, cuts costs, and gains the financial agility needed to scale globally. For Trung and his team, Airwallex isn’t just another financial tool — it’s a game-changer for the business.
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What users say about Airwallex
"Airwallex has been a game changer for all our banking needs. As a fast-growing startup, we need a scalable yet cost-efficient batch payment solution to pay our employees and vendors both inside and outside Hong Kong. Airwallex helps us save money on every bank transfer with their near-zero transaction fee and market-beating FX rates. We also use Airwallex’s multi-currency Visa cards for business travel expenses and SaaS subscriptions to avoid hidden bank fees that would otherwise have been difficult to spot. Would highly recommend other startups to get started with Airwallex!"
Henson Tsai
Founder, SleekFlow
"Airwallex has been great for our team - it makes payments and transfers so much easier, and has saved us significant amounts of time compared to what we were doing before with HSBC. Airwallex's platform is easy to use and very intuitive. Airwallex virtual card has solved most of our painpoints with sharing corporate card numbers and credit card limits. The best part is being able to save money on all our monthly bank transfers, and we've already saved thousands of dollars by using Airwallex. Airwallex's support has also been highly responsive to troubleshoot any issues in a timely manner."
Sarah Chang
Co-founder & COO, Forkast.News
“Airwallex provides us with flexibility and cost savings in dealing internationally. We used Airwallex to receive our recent global fundraising round and pay international suppliers and are saving at least 5% per dollar transferred versus the big banks.”
George van Dyck
Finance Manager, Zoomo – Technology Startup
“Airwallex has been a game changer for us. I cannot recommend these guys enough. The forex services are super efficient and super competitive. The customer service is not gold-plated, it's solid gold. One of the best eCommerce services for merchants we have come across since Paypal hit the scene 20 years ago."
Murray Kester
CEO, Cosmetics Now – eCommerce
“Having all our global SaaS subscriptions in one place has streamlined our finance processes and enabled better tracking and control of expenses. It’s even better knowing that Airwallex isn’t hitting us with any international transaction fees.”
Warren Durling
Chief Operating Officer, Dovetail – Digital Agency
“Airwallex is our one-stop shop for all our banking needs, in one easy-to-use interface. Without Airwallex, we would not have been able to scale our business as fast as what we’ve been able to achieve.”
Andrew Ford and Rosa-Clare Willis
Co-founders, Crockd – eCommerce
