About Blend AI.
Founded in 2020, Blend AI is a Sydney-based marketing technology company on a mission to make online marketing easier for businesses globally.
Blend AI has built a platform designed to take the heavy lifting out of digital advertising. At its core, It automates the repetitive, time-consuming tasks marketers deal with every day. It optimises spend across multiple channels, and connects user actions back to the campaigns that drove them — helping teams make smarter decisions about budgets and audiences.
Today, the platform combines its proprietary technology with modern AI tools to deliver creative recommendations and performance insights.
Blend AI operates across multiple currencies and international markets as part of its everyday operations to support around 300 clients globally, and 20 employees across Sydney, Warsaw and Austin.
Every month we were paying suppliers and clients internationally and everyone wanted to clip the ticket… We thought, well, this is going to start adding up.
Dean Krowitz, CEO and Co-founder, Blend AI
The challenge.
As Blend AI expanded internationally, managing their payroll, FX (foreign exchange) and expenses became increasingly complex and expensive.
“Every month we were paying suppliers and clients internationally and everyone wanted to clip the ticket, whether that be the exporter, the bank or the credit card company we use. We thought, well, this is going to start adding up,” said Dean.
With multiple providers, each taking a margin on foreign exchange payments, costs were compounding quickly. Even something as simple as paying their US team, soon highlighted how expensive and complicated the process was. The business needed a more efficient and cost-effective way to manage US payroll and global expenses without being hit with layered FX fees.
As operations stretched across Australia, the US and Europe, flexibility became just as important as cost control. Blend AI needed the ability to hold and deploy multiple currencies where they were needed without constantly converting funds back and forth and quietly eroding margin.
At the same time, any new solution had to integrate seamlessly into their existing processes.
With Xero at the centre of their accounting workflow, the team couldn’t afford additional manual steps or reconciliation headaches at month-end. Whatever they introduced needed to fit naturally within the systems already in place.
OFX is sharp with rates, and that’s one of the many reasons why I chose the company.
Dean Krowitz
CEO and Co-founder, Blend AI
The solution.
Having worked with OFX in a previous business, it was a natural place to start when Blend AI began looking for a smarter way to manage FX and international payments. “I had a really positive experience previously with OFX, an Aussie-based, local company that operates globally. It was really easy to onboard.” said Dean.
Because Blend AI operates globally, and transacts with international customers, a deciding factor for choosing OFX was competitive FX rates. “OFX is sharp with rates, and that’s one of the many reasons why I chose the company,” Dean noted.
He also noticed how much the platform had evolved. “I remember back then, the portal was quite different when OFX was just dealing with FX. With much more now on offer, I’ve noticed a marked improvement just in the day-to-day use of it.”
What started as a way to manage US payroll soon expanded into a streamlined multi-currency operating model. Instead of converting funds unnecessarily, Blend AI now holds and sends money where it’s needed. “With OFX, I’ve now got a local US account that’ll receive and hold US funds, because I know those funds will go out again in the US. So why lose money converting it back to AUD?”
Virtual employee corporate cards have added another layer of control to their expense management. The ability to instantly create virtual cards for their global employees, has allowed Blend AI to safely isolate spend. “We have a small team in the US who need to cover a few operational costs. And so we spun up some virtual cards, and that’s worked really well. I can just spin up a virtual card really quickly to purchase things safely, silo the money off and reduce the blast radius, as we say.” said Dean.
Crucial to Blend AI’s financial operations, the entire setup integrates seamlessly with Xero. “We wanted to make sure the platform we onboarded played nicely with our existing tools. The Xero integration worked very well for us. It just folds into our existing process within Xero and end of month reconciliation quite seamlessly.”
With OFX, I’ve now got a local US account that’ll receive and hold US funds, because I know those funds will go out again in the US. So why lose money converting it back to AUD?
Dean Krowitz
CEO and Co-founder, Blend AI
Onboarding and support.
For many businesses, onboarding financial platforms can be time-consuming and frustrating. With OFX, Dean’s experience was the opposite.
“It was smoother than I’d expected, the OFX onboarding was really, really good. The customer service was great and it made the whole process really simple.”
Dean highlights the hands-on support as a standout moment. In particular, the proactive support during onboarding left a lasting impression.
“The experience with OFX stays with me. The support was really prominent from the get-go.”
The impact.
By consolidating FX, payroll payments, expense management and accounting integration into one platform, Blend AI has:
- Reduced FX costs and avoided unnecessary fees.
- Eliminated double handling of currency conversions.
- Simplified global payroll payments.
- Streamlined expense management with virtual cards.
- Automated reconciliation through seamless Xero integration.
The result is a finance setup that scales with their global ambitions, without adding operational complexity.
As Blend AI continues to grow internationally, having flexible financial infrastructure in place is critical. OFX provides the multi-currency capabilities, FX expertise and local support that enables Blend AI to focus on what it does best: building technology that makes online marketing simple.
The experience with OFX stays with me. The support was really prominent from the get-go.
Dean Krowitz
CEO and Co-founder, Blend AI
Stop losing margin to FX markups. Scale globally without the FX drag.