Company type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Financial services, technology, fintech |
Founded | 2015 in Melbourne, Australia |
Founders | Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok Wong |
Headquarters | |
Areas served | 130 countries [2] |
Services | Payment processing, forex, debit cards, banking services |
Total equity | US$5.5 billion (2022) |
Number of employees | 1,400 (2022) |
Website |
airwallex |
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Company type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Financial services, technology, fintech |
Founded | 2015 in Melbourne, Australia |
Founders | Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai, Ki-lok Wong |
Headquarters | |
Areas served | 130 countries [2] |
Services | Payment processing, forex, debit cards, banking services |
Total equity | US$5.5 billion (2022) |
Number of employees | 1,400 (2022) |
Website |
airwallex |
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]