Flexbuy | Trust and sublime service from Clearhaus from day one as an entrepreneur
Ten years ago, the founders of Demovare and later Flexbuy wanted to create a business that increases the sustainability of IT equipment. Demovare bought IT equipment, including returns and leftovers, from large retail chains and sold them online at reduced prices with the same service and warranty as new products. After a visit to the DR program Løvens Hule, the company got both investors on board and exposure that sent the growth curve soaring.
Later, they changed their business model and established Flexbuy, which offers companies favourable terms when buying or leasing IT equipment for employees through gross salary schemes. Used IT equipment that is returned is sold via Demovare.
The challenge for Flexbuy
One of the most significant barriers in the start-up phase was the high fees and slow processes associated with acquiring agreements and payment gateways.
“When we started, it was complicated to get an acquiring agreement. The fees were sky-high, and it took ages to get a response - up to many months, in fact,” says co-founder Andreas Henning, CEO of the company. “For an entrepreneurial company without large financial resources, it was crucial for us to find a solution that could get us up and running quickly and smoothly.”
The choice of Clearhaus
Clearhaus was an entrepreneurial company at the time that wanted to challenge the market with a solution that would make it quick and easy for webshops to accept online and mobile payments.
“Clearhaus could offer a more entrepreneurial approach to payment solutions. They had a business philosophy very similar to our own - to make it quick and easy to get started,” says Andreas Henning.
Clearhaus had established a more straightforward application process and reasonable fees, which was crucial for Flexbuy.
“We didn’t have to pay these unforgivably high fees, which in some cases were up to 3% of our revenue, which made a huge difference for us. We also experienced a huge amount of goodwill from Clearhaus. They believed in our business and wanted to help us get started. So, the service level was high from day one - and it still is,” he says.
The value of Clearhaus
Working with Clearhaus has provided value over the years and positively impacted Flexbuy’s business.
“First and foremost, we’ve saved a lot of time on bookkeeping as Clearhaus’ systems are easy to integrate. This has created value in terms of our internal processes. In addition, I remember that other providers gave a muddy picture of what fees you had to pay, whereas Clearhaus was very transparent. Overall, their competitive pricing has saved us a lot of money compared to the competition,” says Andreas Henning.
Another significant advantage was that Clearhaus could reduce the risk of fraud.
“When we started, you could use other people’s payment cards and shop without an extra layer of security. Therefore, there was more fraud back then, and we wanted to eliminate that. Clearhaus was quick to help us navigate how to avoid fraud and set up 3D Secure rules that suited our webshop. This has given us peace of mind regarding transactions, which is invaluable when handling a lot of online payments,” he says.
“I think Clearhaus has given us a kind of peace of mind. Firstly, Clearhaus has paid out with the frequency we want - every week - which helps us with liquidity. Secondly, over the years they have provided a great service. We can always call Clearhaus; they solve our problems within an hour. It’s fantastic. That’s probably where they can differentiate themselves the most now that competition is tougher and everything is primarily about price,” says Andreas Henning.
