Taxila Stone partners with Airwallex to accelerate development of its design super center

Founded in 2020, Taxila Stone’s first warehouse started operations in January 2021. As the company began considering the construction of a second warehouse to meet increasing demand, CEO Hari Polavarapu noticed a gap in the marketplace waiting to be filled – a wholesale design super center for designers, builders, and fabricators. Filling that gap guided Taxila Stone along its growth path.

The challenge

Managing the supply chain in a global business

Taxila Stone keeps a lot of inventory on hand for its customers who are located in countries around the world. This means dealing with multiple suppliers, currencies, and shipping companies. The logistics of moving stone slabs, as well as furniture and appliances so they arrive undamaged requires a very hands-on approach to supply chain logistics. And complete transparency when tracking financial transactions with supply chain partners.

Hari Polavarapu

CEO of Taxila Stone

"Airwallex saves us about $70,000 annually just in lower bank transfer fees."

The solution

Airwallex simplifies and reduces the cost of moving money

Before deploying Airwallex, Taxila Stone found it challenging to keep track of payments to suppliers and from customers. There were often multiple banks involved, all of whom imposed ‌fees of between one and two percent as they processed their part of a transaction.

Since the company purchased stone tiles from more than 20 countries, it was often unclear what the currency exchange rates would be for any particular deal. Moreover, clients in some countries would only accept US dollars because their own currency was unstable, while many in Europe would accept only Euros.

With Airwallex, Polavarapu could lower transfer fees to 0.04% when paying suppliers and could make and accept payments in local currency. Currency exchange rates were also far lower through Airwallex. Taxila Stone moves about $1 million a month. At that volume, Airwallex saves the company about $70,000 annually.

Looking ahead – dual invoicing

Taxila Stone has foreign suppliers around the world that need to be paid. Suppliers are very aware of currency exchange rates and volatility risks in a typical international payment. To cover foreign exchange risk, they usually add a risk premium or margin of 1% to 5% to account for potential rate movement on US dollar (USD) invoices.

Hari Polavarapu

CEO of Taxila Stone

"Airwallex is helping us build a stronger financial foundation for a growing global company. Its platform offers speed and transparency at a lower cost. We always know where our money is going and when it will get there with Airwallex."

This is a scenario that Hari Polavarapu is very familiar with. To control his costs in these transactions, soon Taxila Stone will begin requesting dual invoices – one in US dollars and one in the supplier’s local currency. Airwallex gives its customers the ability to pay either in US dollars or the supplier's currency. Paying in local currency is often far less costly