Save 20% of transaction costs! Shenzhen Dama CFO reveals financial information

In the past two years, with the epidemic promoting the global online process, cross-border e-commerce has ushered in a new pattern . Some overseas companies such as Anker, Shein, and Patpat that have taken the route of boutique and branding have become darlings of the capital market.

The entry of capital has accelerated the growth of the industry, but at the same time it has also put forward higher requirements for small and medium-sized start-ups that are still in the growth stage. When we communicate with many companies, we can feel that when it comes to the actual problems of enterprise operations, many enterprise managers still face challenges:

● How to achieve business and financial integration?

● How to break through the bottleneck of traffic growth?

● How to achieve refined enterprise operations?

● How to build a high-density talent team?

…….

To this end, Airwallex has planned a new interview program for overseas companies - Airtalk.

Airtalk will invite frontline managers from the field of brand overseas expansion and cross-border e-commerce. They may come from different positions and functions such as brand, product, and finance, but what remains unchanged is that they are all unwavering doers and creators on the road to overseas expansion. Here, you will be able to hear their successful (or failed) entrepreneurial stories, sharp industry insights, or effective management experience on the road to overseas expansion.

Follow Airtalk and talk to entrepreneurs who are going global to bring different inspirations and sparks to your global journey.

Airtalk Episode 1: Dialogue with CFO of Vantop

The first episode of Airtalk invited Michelle , the CFO of Wantuo Technology , a well-known cross-border e-commerce company and a client of Airwallex for more than 3 years. Michelle has worked in the Big Four accounting firms and Walmart China for more than 10 years and has rich experience in multinational corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions, financial consulting, and tax planning.

Michelle joined Vantop in 2018. In 2021, Vantop has 9 branches around the world, has incubated 11 world-renowned brands, and has business covering more than 100 countries and regions. The compound growth rate has exceeded 400% for three consecutive years, and has completed a round A financing of 300 million yuan from Sequoia Capital.

The battlefield of cross-border e-commerce is overseas, and financial work is more challenging. Michelle, who came from the traditional industry to the overseas industry, also has a deep understanding of these issues. In this episode of Airtalk, Michelle will share with you:

● How can overseas financial teams do a good job in financial management?

● How do cross-border enterprises plan overseas fund collection?

● Equity financing & IPO compliance

For more wonderful sharing by guests, please see the text interview

Q: How does the cross-border e-commerce finance team divide its functions?

A: As the tax systems of major e-commerce platforms around the world become more and more complete, the requirements for the professional quality of cross-border e-commerce financial personnel will become higher and higher. However, cross-border e-commerce is an emerging industry, and financial management does not have as many references as traditional industries. But in general, the establishment of a financial team is inseparable from the four major financial modules, namely: basic accounting, budget management and financial analysis, fund management and tax management.

Q: What difficult problems have you encountered in cross-border financial work?

A: How to improve the efficiency of financial work is also a headache for many CFOs. For example, in terms of the fund management module, because it involves the entry of overseas funds, from the consumer placing an order to the return of the payment to the country, and then to the settlement of foreign exchange. The links in between are complicated, costly, and the efficiency of capital flow is very slow. In 2018, one of our Hong Kong bank accounts was frozen due to review, and the account could not be withdrawn, which seriously affected the capital flow of the company.

Later, we started to cooperate with Airwallex. Airwallex provides us with one-stop cross-border payment services such as collection, currency exchange, and payment. Airwallex's global account is directly connected to overseas local clearing systems, which reduces our payment rates and greatly improves the efficiency. The Airwallex Visa card that we started using this year also helped us solve some problems with advertising payments.

Now, AirCoin’s integrated payment and collection service has made the operation of our cross-border funds module very simple and efficient, and has also saved more than 20% of the cross-border funds transaction costs.

Q: What suggestions do you have for cross-border fund collection and payment?

A: Many small and medium-sized sellers believe that their trading volume is small and exchange rate fluctuations have little impact on their operations, so they often think of exchanging currency only when they need it. However, as the transaction volume of enterprises continues to grow, smaller exchange rate fluctuations may have a greater impact on corporate profits. I suggest that sellers, regardless of their size, should learn more about foreign exchange management tools and related financial derivatives and establish regular foreign exchange management habits.

Q: What role should the CFO play in an enterprise?

Answer: The first is financial management and financial risk control: that is, ensuring that there are no financial risks in daily operations, such as cash, budget, and providing financial support to the business, which is the integration of business and finance.

The second is corporate financing: bank loans, supply chain finance, bond financing, equity financing, etc. For example, Wantuo received investment from Sequoia Capital in its A round. During this process, the CFO needed to assist the founder in obtaining good equity financing, explain the company's vision and future strategy to investors, and cooperate with investors in the collection of financial information and due diligence.

Finally, there is mergers and acquisitions: The fastest way to expand the local market may be through mergers and acquisitions. The work involved includes: merger and acquisition plans, funding sources, post-merger strategies, etc., which poses a greater challenge to the CFO's capabilities.

Q: How do cross-border companies face the uncertainty of the macro-environment?

A: First, stop making low value-added products. Under the epidemic, the manufacturing industries of various countries have been hit hard, and China's supply chain advantages have become increasingly prominent. How to transform the sales mindset into product mindset, improve the team's R&D capabilities, and build a corporate moat through products and brands is particularly important for cross-border companies.

Second, enterprises should diversify their operations. Product categories, sales channels, sales regions, etc. should be diversified. For example, in the context of the Sino-US trade war, is it necessary to expand into other countries and markets to reduce geopolitical, economic and trade uncertainties and reduce business risks?

In this episode of Airtalk, we heard Michelle, CFO of Wantuo Technology, share her understanding and understanding of cross-border e-commerce finance. As the demand for senior financial management talents by overseas enterprises increases, how to cope with the fiercely competitive market, the changing regulatory environment and the increasingly international business is a topic that financial managers of overseas enterprises need to face and discuss in the long term.

In the future, Airwallex will invite more front-line managers from the fields of brand expansion, cross-border e-commerce, business and finance to pay attention to Airtalk and talk with overseas entrepreneurial activists, bringing different inspiration and sparks to your overseas journey.

Wantuo Technology

Airwallex