Olsam achieve rapid global expansion with Airwallex

Sam Horbye

Co-Founder, Olsam

“If you’re looking for a scalable and slick onboarding and set up process for each acquisition, Airwallex is fantastic. It also provides a great interface for viewing a consolidated list of seller centrals and Amazon stores in a nice dashboard. The design is very helpful for businesses like us.”

Olsam is a fast-growing start-up founded by two brothers, Ollie and Sam Horbye. Their business buys Amazon FBA companies and grows them into market-leading brands. 

With respective backgrounds in private equity and the Amazon marketplace, the brothers knew they had the skills to successfully acquire and scale ecommerce brands internationally. 

A truly borderless company, Olsam’s team is headquartered in the UK and has employees in South Africa and the Philippines. They trade across global marketplaces, including the US, Europe, and the UK, and have plans to expand into Australia and Asia Pacific.  

When searching for a global business account, they knew they needed a platform with a slick onboarding process that would allow them to integrate their newly acquired brands quickly and efficiently. And so they came to Airwallex. 

How Olsam stands out from the crowd

Ecommerce aggregation has mushroomed in the past two years, with Amazon acquirers attracting more than USD12 billion in investment between them since 2020, according to Marketplace Pulse. What gives Olsam the edge is their first-hand experience of the Amazon marketplace. 

“We have a great skill set within the team,” says Olsam’s Finance Director, Martyn Firth. “A lot of people who manage our teams are ex-Amazon employees, so they really know the space. We have great ambitions to grow the business in terms of new territories and to optimise our cash position and the efficiencies we can build.”

The year ahead will bring greater international growth for Olsam, particularly in the US and China. The business is also making plans to partner with other Amazon FBA acquirers and expand their portfolio further.  

With Airwallex in place, Olsam can collect customer payments from their numerous Amazon stores in multiple currencies without being subject to forced FX conversions. Airwallex also enables them to sidestep unnecessary transfer and exchange fees when paying international suppliers. 

Helping Olsam reach exponential growth

Sam Horbye

Co-Founder, Olsam

“The customer service and the responsiveness of Airwallex is a massive reason why we’ve chosen to work with you. We’re having to set up new accounts all the time, if we hit roadblocks we know we can email or call, and we’ll have a timely response.”

The problem

​​Olsam is one company with many faces. Each brand they acquire has its own set of financial accounts, which need to be individually tracked and fed into the business’ central accounting systems.  

Managing multiple brands across borders in several currencies presented a challenge. Olsam needed the right financial infrastructure in place to ensure their accounts were kept in the most efficient way possible. 

The Airwallex solution

• Global Accounts: Olsam can open new multi-currency accounts for each business they acquire in a click. 

• Amazon withdrawal: Olsam collects revenue in multiple currencies from each Amazon account into their Global Accounts with no forced FX conversions or unnecessary fees.    

• Slick onboarding: Airwallex offers an efficient onboarding process for each acquisition.

• Simple interface: Olsam can track their finances across multiple entities from a single interface, and easily toggle between accounts.

• Xero integration: allows for automatic reconciliation. 

• Borderless Cards: Airwallex multi-currency debit cards allow for borderless spending with no transaction fees. Olsam is able to issue individual cards for each brand they acquire.   

Martyn Firth

Finance Director, Olsam

“Airwallex allows us to switch between multiple business accounts with one log in, allowing easier management of multiple subsidiaries. And being able to integrate with Xero is really beneficial.”

The global account for borderless businesses

Airwallex gives companies like Olsam full control of their finances across countries, currencies and brands. We cut down the cost and administrative burdens usually associated with international trade, making global expansion that much easier. 

To find out how Airwallex can help your business scale internationally without the added costs, sign up online.