Airwallex hires tech veteran and venture capitalist as new EMEA General Manager, joining global management bench

London-based tech veteran Jed Rose starts a new role as Airwallex’s General Manager for EMEA to lead the company’s UK and Europe team and drive significant growth across these regions. Jed brings a varied and impressive background as a Tech CEO and venture capitalist, and holds an award-winning track record for leading, advising and investing in innovative companies to realise their full potential. 

About Jed Rose

As a seed-stage investor with high-growth tech startups, Jed’s passion for driving innovation runs deep. He is currently a Venture Partner for Antler Venture Capital, which enables founders and invests in the top 1% of more than 50,000 entrepreneurs and ideas evaluated every year. 

Jed was previously at Paymentsense, a London-based hi-tech startup, where he led the business as CEO. Under his leadership, Paymentsense saw record revenue and profit growth and was recognised by Tech Track 100 over three consecutive years as one of the fastest-growing startups in the UK and Europe. Prior to Paymentsense, Jed held a number of senior positions at Microsoft, serving as the business owner for several large initiatives that saw worldwide success and generated significant business impact.

Jed holds a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Cambridge University. He is committed to supporting the next generation of ideas and giving back to his alma mater by serving as a mentor for Stanford University Graduate School of Business’s Ignite Program, supporting pre-seed entrepreneurs to formulate, develop and commercialise their new business ventures.

Role at Airwallex

Based in Airwallex’s London office, Jed brings his extensive experience in growing businesses and will focus on the development of a world-class regional team across sales, marketing and operations, with plans to hire 50+ new staff in the UK and Europe by 2021. Jed will also join the global leadership team and will play a significant role in Airwallex’s global strategy as the company continues to grow in both verticals and customers, build upon its product base, and cross into new geographies. 

This news follows Airwallex’s recent extension to their Series D fundraising last week that took the round’s total to US$200million. A proportion of these funds are being invested in the regions of which Jed is responsible, with the company looking to expand its payment coverage to include the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa as well as strengthening existing footprints in the UK and Europe. 

Quotes

Jack Zhang, CEO and Co-founder of Airwallex:

“At a time of accelerated demand for digital payments, our purpose is to help businesses scale in the new digital economy by providing a global financial infrastructure that allows them to seamlessly operate online and across borders. I am delighted to welcome seasoned professionals like Jed who share our passion in this critical mission.”

“It is a very exciting time for Airwallex as we have significantly grown our global workforce this year and are continuing to invest in exceptional talent. Strengthening our global management bench with senior hires like Jed is a key step towards delivering our accelerated growth objectives in EMEA and fulfilling our ambition of becoming a global technology leader.”

Jed Rose, Airwallex General Manager of EMEA:

"I’m thrilled to come on board and lead Airwallex’s UK and Europe team at such a pivotal moment for the company. I’ve long been in admiration of Airwallex’s growth strategy and implementation, and to now be a key part of developing its future in EMEA and globally is a truly exciting opportunity. I am looking forward to accelerating the impact that Airwallex has on businesses looking to scale globally.”

Ready to scale your business with Airwallex? Get more from your spending with our free multi-currency virtual cards. Open a foreign currency account with us and say goodbye to high foreign exchange rates and bank transaction fees. You can make international money transfers in multiple currencies, in one business day or less.

Related article: Airwallex bolsters leadership team with global brand veteran