Company Name: Airwallex Pty
LtdFounded: 2015Founders
: Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok WongLocation
: Official
Singapore Website: https://www.airwallex.com/
Nature of the company: Private company
Valuation: Approximately US$5.5 billion (2022)
Number of employees: Approx. 1,400 (2022)
Service area: Covering more than 130 countries and regions
Airwallex was founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia by five founders. Initially, founders Jack Zhang and Max Li ran a café and faced high cross-border payment fees and banking costs, which sparked the idea of creating a more efficient and cost-effective payment platform. Together with University of Melbourne alumni Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai and Ki-lok Wong, they jointly invested US$1 million to form Airwallex. The company aims to provide more convenient cross-border payment solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.
In 2018, Airwallex raised US$80 million in Series B funding, led by Tencent and Sequoia China, at a valuation of US$1 billion, making it Australia's third tech unicorn. Since then, the company has moved its headquarters to Hong Kong and expanded globally. As of 2024, Airwallex has 20 offices around the world, processes more than $100 billion in annual transaction volume, and generates nearly $500 million in annual revenue.
Airwallex offers a range of fintech products designed to simplify cross-border payments and financial management for businesses:
- Global Business Accounts: Multi-currency accounts are available and support for receiving and settling payments in over 20 currencies.
- Foreign Exchange & Transfers: Provide efficient international remittance services, supporting more than 150 countries, using interbank exchange rates to reduce remittance costs.
- Enterprise Spend Management: Issue multi-currency corporate cards that support employee card management, expense reimbursement, and bill payment.
- Global Acquiring: Provide a low-code payment plugin that supports integration with e-commerce platforms, making it easy for merchants to accept payments from customers around the world.
- Platform API and embedded finance: Provide API interfaces such as account creation, payment processing, and foreign exchange management for the platform, and support embedded services for financial products.
Airwallex's clients include Navan, Qantas, SHEIN, HubSpot, GOAT, Saturday Club, Brex and many more. Clients in Australia and New Zealand include Culture Kings, Kogan, Freelancer.com and Camilla. Clients in Israel include PAPAYA Global and OurCrowd, among others.
Airwallex's core market positioning is to provide cross-border payment and financial management solutions to small and medium-sized businesses around the world. Its main application industries include:
- E-commerce & Retail: Supporting the payment needs of online and offline retail e-commerce platforms.
- Foreign trade and B2B: Provide cross-border payment and settlement services for foreign trade import and export enterprises.
- Game Publishing: Supporting the payment needs of game publishers around the world.
- Software & Technology: Payment solutions for B2B and B2C software SaaS platforms.
- Tourism: Payment services for travel agencies, tour operators, hotel wholesalers and traders.
- Wholesalers, manufacturing, logistics: Provide cross-border payment and settlement services.
Airwallex has obtained financial licenses in a number of countries and regions to ensure compliance for its operations:
- Australia: Airwallex Pty Ltd has obtained an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) number 487221 issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
- United States: Airwallex US, LLC is registered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a Money Services Business (MSB) under registration number 31000217304395.
- China: Airwallex acquired a third-party payment license in China through the acquisition of Guangzhou Business Network Technology Co., Ltd., becoming the second foreign company to receive the license, after PayPal.
In addition, Airwallex follows international security standards such as PCI DSS, SOC1 and SOC2 to ensure the security and reliability of its platform.
Airwallex plans to expand its products and services in the coming years, with the goal of becoming the world's leading fintech platform. The company plans to apply for banking licenses in the UK and the US to expand its lending business and compete with global banks. In the UK, Airwallex plans to apply for a banking license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); In the U.S., companies may obtain regulatory approval by acquiring banks.
In addition, Airwallex is piloting a credit card business in Australia, with other markets expected to be rolled out in the future. The company also plans to expand its operations in European countries such as France, Benelux, Ireland and Germany. In Asia, Airwallex plans to enter the Vietnamese market and accelerate its presence in Southeast Asia through the acquisition of local payment company CTIN Pay.
Airwallex is an innovative fintech company that has successfully provided SMEs with efficient and low-cost cross-border payment and financial management solutions through its strong technical capabilities and global service network. As Airwallex continues to expand its business and innovate its products, it is poised to take a significant position in the global fintech sector.
