Tech

'Grexit' means a boost for this US firm

European politicians may be squabbling over the details of Greece's bailout program, but one small company - on the other side of the Atlantic - is quietly attracting potential new customers on the back of the economic crisis.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, a technology firm called GrexIT has seen a "significant" increase in web traffic over the past couple of weeks. It comes as the possibility of a "Grexit" – or Greece exiting the euro zone – looks to be a very real possibility amid the country's ongoing debt crisis.

Co-founder Niraj Ranjan Rout told CNBC via email that the firm had been up and running since before the term was coined and its website, grexit.com, was created in early 2011.

"Yes, we've had increased traffic because of the Greek economic crisis," Rout told CNBC, explaining that the company name is an amalgamation of "Grex" - which means "flock" in Latin - and IT - the abbreviation of information technology.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Carsten Koall | Getty Images

"The amusing thing is, how would our customers in Greece feel about the name of the product? We do have a few, so maybe sometime we should ask them."

Citi Chief Economist Willem Buiter coined the phrase "Grexit" with his colleague Ebrahim Rahbari in February 2012. Data from Google reveals that searches for the term "Grexit" have surged over recent weeks.

Despite this influx of traffic, GrexIT hasn't managed to translate it into increased sales, according to Rout.

"Our focus is our SaaS (software as a service) business of email based on collaboration/ productivity tools, and the traffic we're getting is irrelevant from this perspective," he said.

"We have no plans to monetize this traffic."