Company:Airwallex

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Short description: Financial services company
Airwallex
TypePrivate company
IndustryFinancial services, technology, fintech
Founded2015 in Melbourne, Australia
FoundersJack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok Wong
Headquarters
Singapore[1]
Areas served
130 countries[2]
ServicesPayment processing, forex, debit cards, banking services
Total equityUS$5.5 billion (2022)
Number of employees
1,400 (2022)
Websiteairwallex.com

Airwallex is a multinational financial technology company offering financial services and software as a service (SaaS). Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia[3] and currently based in Singapore,[1] the company is a financial technology platform providing cross-border payments and financial services to businesses through a proprietary banking network and its API.[4][5] It also provides services and products such as business accounts, expense cards, and payroll,[6] among others.[7] It was Australia's third technology unicorn company overall.[8] With a valuation of US$5.5 billion, as of 2022, the company processed $50 billion in annualized transactions.[9]

History

Founding and growth (2015–2018)

Airwallex was created in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia by five co-founders. At the time, software engineer Jack Zhang and architect Max Li had invested in a coffee shop in Melbourne, and were finding cross-border payments for imports to be costly and time-consuming for a small company.[5] Zhang was involved in designing the digital forex trading platforms for the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ),[10] and was inspired to provide a simple, cheaper service to small and midsize businesses.[5] Zhang and Li partnered with Lucy Liu and Xijing Dai, fellow alumni from the University of Melbourne, as well as Ki-Lok Wong. With the founders investing a combined $1 million,[11] roles included Zhang as CEO,[7] Liu as president,[5] Li as head of design, Dai as chief technology officer, and Wong as principal architect.[7]

The Airwallex platform was developed to lower consumer costs on foreign exchange rates,[11] and was launched in a closed beta trial stage in 2015.[12] The company built a proprietary network with banks, such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to handle local transactions.[5] ANZ began providing transactional services to Airwallex in 2017,[13] with both MasterCard's Send platform and Tencent's WeRemit service powered by Airwallex.[14] In 2018, Airwallex moved its headquarters from Melbourne to Hong Kong[5] and turned down a US$1 billion acquisition bid by Stripe.[13] Airwallex closed the "second-largest fundraising round in Australian start-up history" in July 2018, netting $80 million.[15]

International expansion (2019–2020)

After a round of funding in March 2019 brought in $100 million from investors such as DST Global, Sequoia Capital China, and Hillhouse Capital,[5] Airwallex reached a valuation of US$1 billion,[16] and became the "quickest company in Australia to reach unicorn status,"[17] as well as Australia's third technology unicorn overall.[8] Press reported in February 2020 that instead of focusing largely on forex transfers, Airwallex was aiming to become a "neobank" akin to Salesforce, specifically the "AWS of financial services."[18] In 2020, NAB was providing payroll and rental payment services to Airwallex.[19] The NAB had previously cancelled transactional banking services for Airwallex customers in 2018.[19][20] In 2021, Hong Kong unfroze $18.2 million in funds and released them to Airwallex[21] after Hong Kong's High Court dismissed suspicions[17] by the Hong Kong Police Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance[17] that two former Airwallex clients had used Airwallex for money laundering.[17][22]

Recent developments (2021-2023)

In May 2021, Airwallex received a license in the Netherlands, giving them access to the European market.[23] Airwallex started operations in the US in August,[24] and secured a license in Malaysia in September 2021.[25] In November 2021, Airwallex raised an additional US$100 million, reaching a new valuation of $5.5 billion and bringing the total funds raised since 2015 to $802 million.[26] In late 2021 it had 1000 employees in 19 locations.[27] The company processed $20 billion at an annualized volume in 2021,[28][29] and by 2022, that had increased to $50 billion processed in annualized transactions.[30] Airwallex released a debit card with Visa in Hong Kong in 2021,[31] followed by a release in the U.S. in 2022.[32] Airwallex launched in Singapore in early 2022.[33] In Oct. 2022, Airwallex raised another US$100 million as part of its Series E funding round, sustaining its estimated valuation of US$5.5 bln.[6] CRN valued it at US$5.6 billion in Oct. 2022.[34]

In Mar. 2023,[35] Airwallex secured a third-party payment license in China through the acquisition of Guangzhou Shangwutong Network Technology, becoming only the second foreign company to have secured the license after PayPal.[36] As of Aug. 2023, key markets included Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and Hong Kong. Also in 2023, Airwallex launched into Israel[37] and Canada.[38] In October 2023, Airwallex acquired a Mexico-based payments company, MexPago. The deal was made to help the firm expand its footprint in Latin America.[39] Currently based in Singapore,[1] Airwallex has a total of 20 locations[9] and most recently had 1400 employees.[34]

Products and services

Airwallex states its financial platform for businesses has features related to payments, treasury, spend management, and embedded finance.[40]

Airwallex uses a proprietary banking network to handle local transactions, with machine learning[5] in its SaaS products "[enabling] customers to... send money through local and international clearing networks" in around 130 countries.[2] Beyond forex services, other services include online payments acceptance, bank accounts, borderless cards, and a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs).[7][41]

According to the company, as of 2023 its software infrastructure is used by 100,000 businesses[40] including brands such as Navan, Qantas, SHEIN,[9] HubSpot, GOAT,[30] Saturday Club,[42] and Brex. Others in Australia and New Zealand have included Culture Kings, Kogan, Freelancer.com, and Camilla,[34] while Israeli firms include Papaya Global and OurCrowd.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/02/here-are-the-worlds-top-200-fintechs-cnbc-and-statista.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Coffee cup dilemma leads to Australia's latest $1b tech unicorn", Cara Waters (26 Mar 2019), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  3. ↑ "Airwallex aims to upend global payments system", Henny Sender (7 July 2020), Financial Times. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  4. ↑ "Airwallex and Plaid partner on payments" (in en). 2022-12-08. https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/95177/airwallex-and-plaid-partner-on-payments. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 "Fintech unicorn rewrites forex rules to snag big bank profits", Michelle Chan (7 June 2019), Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://www.altfi.com/article/9957_in-a-tough-market-airwallex-raises-a-second-100m-series-e-extension
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "How a career break and coffee turned into a $3.4b business", Yolanda Redrup (26 March 2021), Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Airwallex Becomes Australia's Third Tech Unicorn", 26 March 2019, Bloomberg News . Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 https://www.timesofisrael.com/fintech-airwallex-opens-israel-office-to-expand-footprint-in-middle-east/
  10. ↑ "The Journey of Four Chinese Students Who Founded Australia's Newest Tech Unicorn", Nidhi Singh (26 March 2019), Entrepreneur. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "How a coffee shop business turned into Australia's fastest-growing $1 billion start-up", Karen Gilchrist (29 July 2019), CNBC . Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  12. ↑ Russell, John. "Asia Pacific cross-border payment startup Airwallex lands $3M". https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/08/asia-pacific-cross-border-payment-startup-airwallex-lands-3m/. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Payments 'unicorn' Airwallex knocked back $1b offer from Stripe", Charlotte Grieve (26 April 2021), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Russell, Jon. "Australia's Airwallex raises $6M to grow its cross-border payment business". Tech Crunch. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/15/airwallex-raises-6m. 
  15. ↑ Bailey, Michael. "Airwallex in the money with $108m raise". Australian Financial Review (The Australian Financial Review). https://www.afr.com/technology/airwallex-in-the-money-with-108m-raise-20180626-h11wca. 
  16. ↑ "Airwallex is Australia's latest unicorn", Derek Rose (26 March 2019), News.com. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "Police freeze $26m of Aussie tech unicorn's funds after alleged fraud", Cara Waters (23 Dec 2019), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  18. ↑ Redrup, Yolanda. "Airwallex launches 'borderless' card". Australian Financial Review (The Australian Financial Review). https://www.afr.com/technology/airwallex-launches-borderless-card-20200204-p53xl2. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "'Denied': NAB, Citi pulled banking services from fintech unicorn Airwallex over risk fears", Charlotte Grieve (14 April 2021), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  20. ↑ "Airwallex banks with ANZ, despite NAB and Citi rejection", Charlotte Grieve (15 April 2021), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  21. ↑ Waters, Cara. "Atlassian co-founder backs Airwallex as it raises another $56m". www.smh.com.au. https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/atlassian-co-founder-backs-airwallex-as-it-raises-another-56m-20200928-p55zwl.html. 
  22. ↑ "Airwallex has $26m frozen by Hong Kong police in fraud probe", Lucas Baird (24 Dec 2019), Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  23. ↑ "Airwallex secures EMI licence from the Dutch Central Bank". The Paypers. https://thepaypers.com/online-payments/airwallex-secures-emi-licence-from-the-dutch-central-bank. 
  24. ↑ "Airwallex Raises Funds at $4 Billion Valuation for Expansion", Lulu Yilun Chen (20 Sep 2021), Bloomberg Quint. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  25. ↑ MOSQUEDA JR., Mars W.. "Fintech unicorn Airwallex hits $4bn valuation after raising $200m". Nikkei. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/DealStreetAsia/Fintech-unicorn-Airwallex-hits-4bn-valuation-after-raising-200m. 
  26. ↑ Jennings, Ralph (2021-11-19). "Hong Kong Fintech Startup Airwallex Raises Another Nine Figures In Funding". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2021/11/19/hong-kong-fintech-startup-airwallex-raises-another-nine-figures-in-funding/?sh=7585f9524216. 
  27. ↑ "Li Ka-shing and Tencent-backed Airwallex's valuation swells to US$5.5 billion after latest funding round", Chad Bray (18 November 2021), South China Morning Post. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  28. ↑ "Wave of global unicorns': Airwallex hits $5.5 billion valuation", Cara Waters (20 September 2021), The Age. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  29. ↑ "Airwallex closes Series E with USD 100 mln raise" (in en). https://thepaypers.com/online-payments/airwallex-closes-series-e-with-usd-100-mln-raise--1258708. 
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/10/airwallex-raises-100m-to-power-cross-border-business-banking-valuation-stays-flat-at-5-5b/
  31. ↑ "Airwallex to introduce new virtual payment card for businesses in Hong Kong as rivalry intensifies", Chad Bray (10 June 2021), South China Morning Post. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  32. ↑ "FinTech Airwallex Debuts Multicurrency Virtual Business Cards in US". www.pymnts.com (Payments TV). https://www.pymnts.com/news/cross-border-commerce/cross-border-payments/2022/fintech-airwallex-debuts-multicurrency-virtual-business-cards-in-us/. 
  33. ↑ MOSQUEDA Jr., Mars W.. "Fintech unicorn Airwallex launches in Singapore, eyes SE Asia expansion". Deal Street Asia (Nikkei). https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/airwallex-singapore-launch-277259. 
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 https://www.crn.com.au/news/airwallex-anz-sees-115-per-cent-revenue-increase-598509
  35. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/technology/tencent-backed-airwallex-secures-e-payment-license-china-2023-03-07/
  36. ↑ https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/20230427-20-australias-airwallex-to-start-offering-mobile-payment-services-in-china-senior-executive-says
  37. ↑ https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/DealStreetAsia/Tencent-backed-Airwallex-s-Singapore-unit-gets-fresh-165m
  38. ↑ https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/fintech-airwallex-rolls-out-global-payments-in-canada.html
  39. ↑ Browne, Ryan (2023-10-19). "As U.S.-China tensions rumble on, fintech unicorn Airwallex pushes into Latin America with Mexico deal" (in en). https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/19/fintech-firm-airwallex-buys-mexpago-to-expand-in-latin-america.html. 
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 https://www.airwallex.com/newsroom/airwallex-for-startups-launches-in-hong-kong-to-help-local-businesses
  41. ↑ Webber, Daniel. "Airwallex: Building A Cross-Border Payments Infrastructure For Global Business" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielwebber/2022/03/02/airwallex-building-a-cross-border-payments-infrastructure-for-global-business/. 
  42. ↑ https://www.straitstimes.com/business/global-payments-firm-airwallex-aims-to-double-s-pore-headcount-by-year-end

External links



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