Clocky Relies on Airwallex to Reduce the Costs of its Global Business

Clocky, an alarm clock that jumps off the nightstand and runs away beeping, was created by company CEO Gauri Nanda in 2005, while a student at MIT. Building on the success of its first product, the company wanted to:

• Expand globally on various eCommerce platforms

• Broaden its product offerings beyond alarm clocks to home-design goods

• Increase revenue per channel

Gauri Nanda

CEO, Clocky

Airwallex has made it possible for us to grow quickly across global markets while controlling our FX and transfer fee costs.

Managing the supply chain in a global business

The company needed to find a way to avoid high foreign exchange and transfer fees when making payments. Clocky’s initial service provider imposed fees — a percentage of every transaction — for accepting and making payments. When Clocky decided to move $700,000 to Airwallex, the service provider wanted to charge Clocky one percent of the transaction — $7,000! That was a bridge too far.

Airwallex helped negotiate a lower fee with the service provider. Nevertheless, Gauri didn’t want to be held captive within its service provider’s financial ecosystem. She wanted the flexibility to move and collect money globally at scale.

Gauri Nanda

CEO, Clocky

Clocky wants to expand its product offering beyond alarm clocks and increase revenue per channel. Airwallex will be a big part of achieving those goals.

How Clocky uses Airwallex

Clocky deployed Airwallex to assist with collecting payments from some of its eCommerce platforms and to set up new platforms. This helped reduce the costs associated with transfer fees when moving funds from another bank and when making payments to vendors and overseas freelancers.

The company found the Airwallex fee structure far lower than its predecessor. Moreover, Airwallex offered the ability to be in more countries, while saving on FX fees, lowering collection costs, and making it easier to pay vendors and suppliers regardless of location. Extending their global reach was essential to Clocky’s goal of expanding their products into the home interior design space.