A Conversation with HubSpot & Airwallex

A conversation with Caitlin Siegrist, Senior Manager of Platform Ecosystems at HubSpot, Eric Bai, Manager of SME Partnerships at Airwallex, and Richard Yu, Product Lead of Ecosystem, Growth, and Lending at Airwallex.

Tell us more about Airwallex’s Ecosystem and Strategic Partnerships team

Airwallex (Richard/Eric): The Ecosystem team’s mission is to simplify customer operations and enable novel use cases for small and medium enterprises. We build integrations with supporting software, like accounting, customer relationship management and eCommerce platforms. 

Our team was formed last year to better serve our customers with a connected product that would help users manage their money confidently with tools they’re already familiar with. Our members work closely with Airwallex’s Strategic Partnerships team responsible for managing relationships with some of the largest tech companies.

How did the partnership with HubSpot start?

Airwallex: We’re new to the HubSpot ecosystem, but we’ve been a HubSpot customer for quite some time. Our partnership conversation with HubSpot began in earnest earlier this year. While we’d identified HubSpot as a potential partner and had a few preliminary conversations, our Ecosystem product team had been focused on launching integrations with Netsuite, Zapier and Xero. 

It wasn’t until we took part in the App Accelerator program that we started exploring a possible integration. Their team was seeking out partners as part of their international program, and we realized this was the perfect opportunity for us to look more deeply into an integration.

What made the accelerator an especially useful program for Airwallex?

Airwallex: A few things stood out to us as we learned more about the accelerator. Firstly, the program provided dedicated developer advocates who helped us investigate HubSpot API endpoints and possible flows for our integration. Secondly, HubSpot’s Partnerships team helped us answer questions about our multi-regional customers’ needs, our core market. And finally, the many co-marketing opportunities we could participate in to help increase awareness of our solution for joint customers.

How did the product organization at Airwallex decide to build a direct integration with HubSpot?

Airwallex: The accelerator’s required timeline was to design and build an integration in three months. This was the fastest integration built by our team, and it took careful planning and decision-making.

We considered working with third-party developers, who we also work with on other integrations. We also assessed the tradeoffs of prioritizing this integration. In order to proceed, we’d likely have to delay building another integration. 

Ultimately, we decided to move forward with a direct integration based on the size of our existing mutual customer base with HubSpot and our conviction of the opportunity as HubSpot’s partner. Our goal is to provide a great customer experience for HubSpot’s customers.

What customer problem is Airwallex trying to solve by building an integration with HubSpot?

Airwallex: When you’re a business owner operating across multiple regions, you might find yourself paying unnecessary fees for foreign exchange and payment processing. You might also find your banking system and CRM don’t talk, making it difficult for your finance and sales teams to collect payments and track cash flow. 

Airwallex, through its integration with HubSpot, offers a single, user-friendly solution for getting paid. The integration uses Airwallex’s shareable, no-code payment links which accept payments in over 170+ local currencies and settle like-for-like into your account. Customers can then use these funds to pay their vendors and expenses. 

For each deal in HubSpot, the integration creates a payment link unique to the deal and syncs payment events directly to the deal. This saves customers a great deal of time switching between Airwallex and HubSpot, empowers HubSpot Sales Hub users to request and track payments from their customers, and helps finance teams track cash flow while maintaining secure access to the company’s Airwallex account.

What makes HubSpot an attractive ecosystem to develop integrations for?

Airwallex: HubSpot is a huge player in the CRM space. It has a vast ecosystem of developer and solutions partners which provide real value to its customers. According to IDC, the HubSpot ecosystem is forecast to grow faster than HubSpot as its revenue grows from $4.8 billion in 2020 to $12.5 billion in 2024. 

Aside from the addressable market, HubSpot’s developer platform and support is a big draw — they’re clearly taking a calculated bet on the success of its partners.

Why did HubSpot choose to work with Airwallex for its international app accelerator?

HubSpot: Out of several concepts submitted to the accelerator, we found Airwallex’s to be one of the most exciting. Airwallex’s robust payment and FX capabilities are unique for allowing customers to collect payments across multiple currencies and also settle them like-for-like without incurring double currency conversions. This is a large demand gap for companies operating globally and enables them to spend on fees and more on growth. In addition, Airwallex’s large customer base had considerable overlap with HubSpot which made the accelerator an ideal opportunity to partner more closely together.

Why is addressing the needs of global and multi-market customers a key priority for HubSpot?

HubSpot: While HubSpot’s CRM Platform provides marketing, sales, and customer service capabilities that almost all businesses need, applications like Airwallex provide specialized functionality for companies operating globally. Businesses who operate across different countries face unique challenges including dealing with multiple languages, currencies and payment methods. 

HubSpot supports over 143,000 companies in more than 120 countries. IDC expects HubSpot customers to become increasingly international, with North American revenue going from nearly 60% of the total in 2020 to under 45% by 2024. The company also has offices all over the world, including recent expansions in Spain, Netherlands and Quebec, Canada. This is a huge area of focus for HubSpot and which is why we’ve made this a key theme for our spring accelerator.

What are your future plans for the partnership?

Airwallex: Right now, we’re focused on our existing joint customers and educating them on the benefits of the integration. In the future, expect to see more co-marketing efforts between the two companies and exploring deeper ways to partner together. 

Airwallex will also be expanding the capabilities of our payment link product, such as accepting bank transfers or direct debit. We’ll also be building additional integrations with HubSpot, including Quotes and Marketing Hub.

Thanks, any further thoughts?

AWX: Read more details about our app in HubSpot’s app marketplace — and if you’re not already an Airwallex customer, you’ll have fees returned on your first $20,000 FX processed when you sign up for a free borderless business account via this link.

HubSpot: If you have an app that could connect with HubSpot, we’d love to talk to you about participating in our App Accelerator program.