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Airwallex

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Airwallex
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial services, technology, fintech
Founded2015 in Melbourne, Australia
FoundersJack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok Wong
Headquarters
Singapore[1]
ServicesPayment processing, forex, debit cards, banking services
Total equityUS$6.2 billion (2025)
Number of employees
1,800 (2025)
Websiteairwallex.com

Airwallex is a multinational financial technology company[2][3] providing financial services. Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia[4] and currently headquartered in Singapore,[1] the company's platform provides global payments through its application programming interface (API) and proprietary[5][6] financial infrastructure.[7] Services and products include business accounts, expense cards, and payroll,[8] among others.[9] It expanded into investment products[10] in 2023.[11] Airwallex is Australia's third technology unicorn company overall.[12] With a valuation of US$6.2 billion in May 2025,[13] it has raised $1.2 billion in total funding.[14]

History

[edit]

Founding and growth (2015–2018)

[edit]

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.[6] 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).[15][6] 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,[16] roles included Zhang as CEO,[9] Liu as president,[6] Li as head of design, Dai as chief technology officer, and Wong as principal architect.[9]

The Airwallex platform was developed to lower consumer costs for cross-border payments,[16] and was launched in a closed beta trial stage in 2015.[17] 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.[6] ANZ began providing transactional services to Airwallex in 2017,[18] with both MasterCard's Send platform and Tencent's WeRemit service powered by Airwallex.[19] In 2018, Airwallex moved its headquarters from Melbourne to Hong Kong[6] and turned down a US$1 billion acquisition bid by Stripe.[18] Airwallex closed the "second-largest fundraising round in Australian start-up history" in July 2018, netting $80 million.[20]

International expansion (2019–2022)

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After a round of funding in March 2019 brought in $100 million from investors,[6] Airwallex reached a valuation of US$1 billion,[21] and became the "quickest company in Australia to reach unicorn status,"[22] as well as Australia's third technology unicorn overall.[12] 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."[23] In 2020, NAB was providing payroll and rental payment services to Airwallex.[24] The NAB had previously cancelled transactional banking services for Airwallex customers in 2018.[24][25] In 2021, Hong Kong unfroze $18.2 million in funds and released them to Airwallex[26] after Hong Kong's High Court dismissed suspicions[22] by the Hong Kong Police Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance[22] that two former Airwallex clients had used Airwallex for money laundering.[22][27]

In May 2021, Airwallex received a license in the Netherlands, giving them access to the European market.[28] Airwallex started operations in the US in August,[29] and secured a license in Malaysia in September 2021.[30] 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.[31][32] After debuting a borderless card for businesses in Australia in 2020,[33] Airwallex released a version of that debit card with Visa in Hong Kong in 2021,[34] followed by a release in the U.S. in 2022.[35] Airwallex launched in Singapore in early 2022.[36] Later that year, In October 2022, Airwallex raised another US$100 million,[8] and in October 2022, CRN valued it at US$5.6 billion.[37]

Recent developments (2023-2026)

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In March 2023,[38] 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.[39] In October 2023, Airwallex acquired a Mexico-based payments company, MexPago.[40] Among other markets were Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, Hong Kong, Israel,[41] and Canada.[42] In February 2024, Airwallex signed a multi-year partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 racing team, with the Airwallex logo added to McLaren's livery.[43] In May 2024, Airwallex launched a program in Australia to provide grants to local startups,[44] with the program afterwards expanded to Hong Kong[45] and Singapore.[46] By that summer 1,200 startups in Australia were part of the Airwallex for Startups program.[47] In June 2024, Airwallex expanded into France,[48] and in August 2024, Airwallex announced an annual revenue run rate of $500 million and that it was preparing to be IPO-ready 2026.[49]

Airwallex entered the New Zealand market in March 2025, and also agreed to acquire Vietnamese intermediary payment service (IPS) CTIN Pay. The company was then reported as having exceeded US$130 billion in its annual transaction volume.[50] That month, it reported $720 million in annualized revenue, a 90% increase from the year prior.[13] In May 2025, Airwallex raised $300 million in a Series F funding round,[51] which increased its valuation to US$6.2 billion.[13] In July 2025, Airwallex became the official finance software partner of Arsenal Football Club.[52] Currently based in Singapore,[1] Airwallex has over 25 offices and 1,800 employees.[14]

In December 2025, Airwallex was accused of handing sensitive American user data to Chinese government officials that "create legal obligations to assist with CCP espionage upon request". Internal messages by Airwallex executives from 2023 found that increased access to information was not requested by the Australian commercial team with the presumption being it was driven by China.[53] In response, Airwallex diluted its major Chinese shareholder and added a United States headquarters as part of an $8 billion funding round.[54] United States Senator Tom Cotton requested via a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that Airwallex be investigated for giving access of its data to the Chinese Communist Party that same month.[55]

In January 2026, it was announced that Airwallex had acquired the South Korean fintech company Paynuri, marking its entry into the South Korean market. The acquisition provided Airwallex with local payment gateway, prepaid electronic payment instrument and foreign exchange business licences, enabling the launch of its services in the country.[56] That same month, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) ordered an audit of Airwallex for suspected anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance issues.[57]

Products and services

[edit]

Airwallex states its financial platform for businesses has features related to online payments, spend management, embedded finance,[58] and global business accounts.[59] It uses a proprietary banking network to handle local transactions, with machine learning[6] in its SaaS products.[60] In late 2023, Airwallex began using generative AI for its know your customer (KYC) and customer onboarding process,[61] claiming the AI tool greatly increased efficiency.[62]

Beyond forex services, other services include online payments acceptance, bank accounts, borderless cards, and a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs).[9][63] According to the company, as of 2025 its technology is used by around 150,000 businesses.[51]

Airwallex Yield

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In November 2023, Airwallex launched the investment product[11] Airwallex Yield[64] in Australia.[11] Yield allowed wholesale businesses to earn returns on their AUD and USD balances without opening a foreign bank account,[64] then a unique product in Australia. It became available to a broader market[10] in July 2024, when the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) granted Airwallex an Australian Financial Services License for retail investment products. By that point, Airwallex had A$100 million in funds under management.[64]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "From banking giants to lending up-and-comers — here are the world's top 200 fintech companies". CNBC. 2 August 2023.
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