Misplaced Pages

Airwallex

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Financial services company
Airwallex
Company typePrivate company
IndustryFinancial services, technology, fintech
Founded2015 in Melbourne, Australia
FoundersJack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok Wong
HeadquartersSingapore
Areas served130 countries
ServicesPayment processing, forex, debit cards, banking services
Total equityUS$5.5 billion (2022)
Number of employees1,400 (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 and currently based in Singapore, the company is a financial technology platform providing cross-border payments and financial services to businesses through a proprietary banking network and its API. It also provides services and products such as business accounts, expense cards, and payroll, among others. It was Australia's third technology unicorn company overall. With a valuation of US$5.5 billion, as of 2022, the company processed $50 billion in annualized transactions.

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. 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), and was inspired to provide a simple, cheaper service to small and midsize businesses. 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, roles included Zhang as CEO, Liu as president, Li as head of design, Dai as chief technology officer, and Wong as principal architect.

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

International expansion (2019–2020)

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

Recent developments (2021-2024)

In May 2021, Airwallex received a license in the Netherlands, giving them access to the European market. Airwallex started operations in the US in August, and secured a license in Malaysia in September 2021. 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. In late 2021 it had 1000 employees in 19 locations. The company processed $20 billion at an annualized volume in 2021, and by 2022, that had increased to $50 billion processed in annualized transactions. Airwallex released a debit card with Visa in Hong Kong in 2021, followed by a release in the U.S. in 2022. Airwallex launched in Singapore in early 2022. 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. CRN valued it at US$5.6 billion in Oct. 2022.

In Mar. 2023, 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. 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 and Canada. 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. Currently based in Singapore, Airwallex has a total of 20 locations and most recently had 1400 employees.

In 2024, Airwallex achieved an annual revenue run rate of $500 million.

Products and services

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

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

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

References

  1. ^ "From banking giants to lending up-and-comers — here are the world's top 200 fintech companies". CNBC. 2 August 2023.
  2. ^ "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". Finextra Research. 2022-12-08. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  5. ^ "Fintech unicorn rewrites forex rules to snag big bank profits", Michelle Chan (7 June 2019), Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  6. ^ "In a tough market, Airwallex raises a second $100m Series e extension". 11 October 2022.
  7. ^ "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. ^ "Airwallex Becomes Australia's Third Tech Unicorn", 26 March 2019, Bloomberg Daybreak. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  9. ^ "Fintech Airwallex opens Israel office to expand footprint in Middle East". Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  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. ^ "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 (8 July 2016). "Asia Pacific cross-border payment startup Airwallex lands $3M". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  13. ^ "Payments 'unicorn' Airwallex knocked back $1b offer from Stripe", Charlotte Grieve (26 April 2021), Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  14. Russell, Jon (15 December 2017). "Australia's Airwallex raises $6M to grow its cross-border payment business". www.techcrunch.com. Tech Crunch. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  15. Bailey, Michael. "Airwallex in the money with $108m raise". Australian Financial Review. The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  16. "Airwallex is Australia's latest unicorn", Derek Rose (26 March 2019), News.com. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  17. ^ "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. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  19. ^ "'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. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  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". www.thepaypers.com. The Paypers. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  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. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  26. Jennings, Ralph (2021-11-19). "Hong Kong Fintech Startup Airwallex Raises Another Nine Figures In Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  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". thepaypers.com. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  30. ^ "Airwallex raises $100M to power cross-border business banking, valuation stays flat at $5.5B". 11 October 2022.
  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. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  33. MOSQUEDA Jr., Mars W. "Fintech unicorn Airwallex launches in Singapore, eyes SE Asia expansion". Deal Street Asia. Nikkei. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  34. ^ "Airwallex ANZ sees 115 per cent revenue increase".
  35. "Tencent-backed Airwallex secures e-payment license in China". Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  36. Ziang, Guo (April 27, 2023). "Australia's Airwallex to Start Offering Direct Online Payment Services in China, Senior Executive Says". yicaiglobal.com. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  37. "Tencent-backed Airwallex's Singapore unit gets fresh $165m".
  38. "Airwallex rolls out global payments in Canada".
  39. Browne, Ryan (2023-10-19). "As U.S.-China tensions rumble on, fintech unicorn Airwallex pushes into Latin America with Mexico deal". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
  40. Browne, Ryan (15 Aug 2024). "Tencent-backed Airwallex hits $500 million annualized sales, aims to get IPO-ready by 2026". CNBC.
  41. ^ ""Airwallex for Startups" launches in Hong Kong to help local businesses streamline operations". airwallex.com. 6 September 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  42. Webber, Daniel. "Airwallex: Building A Cross-Border Payments Infrastructure For Global Business". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  43. Lim, Clay (10 July 2023). "Global payments firm Airwallex aims to double S'pore headcount by year end". The Straits Times.

External links

Categories: