Ooni replaces 5 corporate credit cards with Brex’s global card program.
Company
Ooni is the creator and leader of the home pizza oven market and believes that “everyone deserves great pizza.” Founded by husband-and-wife Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland in Edinburgh, Scotland, Ooni operates around the world. The company was named best pizza oven by WIRED magazine and is a certified B Corporation.
Challenge: Multiple card programs were a struggle to manage.
Great pizza for all means Ooni employees need to be literally everywhere. With people in the U.K., Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S., the company continues to expand into new markets.
Ooni supported the global nature of its pizza oven business with credit cards for nearly every country — juggling five different cards to purchase travel and accommodation, online advertising, team events, external booking, monthly subscriptions, and more in each country. And it was a struggle as the teams used prepaid cards in Europe, Australia & NZ, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) cards in the U.S., as well as some other regional cards for other initiatives across the group.
The tipping point came with the March 2023 collapse of SVB, which was also a banking partner, and Ooni had to get a new card program in place quickly. Ooni’s finance team looked into the credit card offerings from its other bank partners, but the mix of prepaid and credit cards “all felt very complicated and time-consuming,” said Mark Topping, Group Finance Manager at Ooni.
"The other platforms were a bit dated and they didn't service all the markets we needed, so we still would’ve needed multiple solutions for multiple locations,” Mark added. “There wasn’t that one login that could service everyone.”
Another area Ooni sought to update was employee reimbursements. It was important for Ooni that employees use corporate cards for expenses instead of paying with a personal card and getting reimbursed. “We don’t want our staff to be out of pocket in any shape or form if we can help it,” Mark said. “We would rather have more cards in circulation, so getting everyone who needed a card was important.”
Ooni sought to refine and simplify its global corporate card program so that it could continue to bring quality pizza ovens to backyards everywhere.
"The other platforms were a bit dated and they didn't service all the markets we needed, so we still would’ve needed multiple solutions for multiple locations. There wasn’t that one login that could service everyone.”
— Mark Topping, Group Finance Manager, Ooni
Solution: Ooni consolidates onto Brex’s global card program.
Ooni chose Brex as the sole corporate card provider for all of its employees across locations. Ooni also uses Brex’s banking solution alongside its other global banks, and Mark says Brex’s global approach to its card, expense management, and banking is driving adoption.
“We are a global business and want it to be as simple and as few logins as possible,” Mark said.
“One of the attractions of Brex was its global platform. It’s one system employees can log into regardless of where they are. The team’s really embraced the cards and the overall Brex platform because it’s so easy to use.”
— Mark Topping, Group Finance Manager, Ooni
Ooni has found the Brex-Slack integration to be extremely popular. More than half of employees, including Mark, use Slack to request a Brex card and simplify their expense processes.
“I get notifications through Slack, and those workflows are useful reminders to review upcoming bills as well as expenses,” he said. “Linking Brex to our Slack system makes it even more useful.”
Impact: Fewer card providers means better visibility and a faster month-end close.
With Brex, Ooni rolled out one unified, global employee card program and never looked back. Mark said Brex’s global capabilities and virtual credit card options allowed Ooni to consolidate its corporate card programs and close the books faster. “With Brex, we were able to leave all those other card platforms behind,” he said. “And pulling data from one platform instead of five really simplified the month end in a large way.”
Ooni was able to limit employee reimbursements and also fine-tune some of its more unique reimbursement processes. The company, for example, wanted to pay out employee reimbursements both within Brex and externally via payroll — to accommodate local employment regulations in Germany — and they asked Brex to assist. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how quickly Brex jumped on suggestions to help make things work for our use case,” Mark noted.
Mark listed several other benefits that Brex’s corporate credit card program brought to Ooni:
- Centralized subscription payments
- Rules-based expense itemization
- Access to detailed spend reporting
But one other unexpected benefit, Mark added, is how Brex helps Ooni simplify some of its global banking processes. “We love that we’re able to scan a check from Edinburgh or Canada and have it appear in our U.S. bank account,” he said. “Brex has helped us do those routine but critical financial processes in a less complicated way."
As Ooni expands its outdoor pizza oven business, Mark said it will continue to explore more Brex use cases, like building out their NetSuite automation and VAT reclamation.
“We knew from the start that Brex was one platform for all, with virtual and physical cards as well as the ability to set up budgets and restrictions, and we’re happy with how it’s going,” Mark said.
“The people we’ve met, the onboarding process, the platform’s ease of use — Brex is the kind of company that we want to work with."
— Mark Topping, Group Finance Manager, Ooni
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See what Brex can do for you.
Learn how our spend platform can increase the strategic impact of your finance team and future-proof your company.