Mission Update: Reflecting on a year of milestones

Welcome to our first-ever annual Mission Update.

We’re here to bring you up to speed on how Airwallex is connecting you — the entrepreneurs, business builders, makers and creators — with exciting opportunities in every corner of the world. 

A lot can happen in a year. And we’ve been using this time to deliver faster, cheaper and more transparent financial solutions to help you win new markets and grow your bottom line.

So while we can’t cover everything off, here’s a snapshot (by the numbers) of the progress we made in 2021 and a little of what we’re working to achieve this year.

Here’s to you, our loyal customers

Of all the milestones in 2021, our greatest achievement so far has been supporting you. From small business owners to enterprise CEOs, employees and finance teams of all sizes — thank you for taking your finances further with Airwallex.

Last year many of you had asked for even more ways to operate and integrate payment services without borders. So, we focused on expanding our products to match your needs. With technology at our core, we’ve built global infrastructure and applications to transform financial experiences for our customers and unlock new opportunities for their business in two ways:

We’re listening to you every step of the way. And we’re continuing to improve and build new products that offer even more value, without creating extra effort or cost to you. Part of this comes down to the strong relationships we’ve continued to forge with global banks, regulators and local partners.

Speeding up your day-to-day operations

In 2021, we doubled down on speed to make overseas transactions faster than ever. It’s no surprise the number of overseas transfers facilitated by Airwallex grew 5x. 

By working with local payment systems, we’re able to facilitate international payments in real-time. Think of us as a hub connecting faster flight pathways between hundreds of banks and payment systems worldwide. 

In 2021, you deposited more money into Airwallex than ever before. And to save you the hassle of manually transferring funds from your external accounts, we’re releasing auto top-up options for your business account and transfers.

Reducing your costs and overheads globally

We’ve been working hard to reduce costs by building great relationships with banks and payment systems, adding to our impressive breadth of currencies, countries and settlement configurations, and leveraging our recent Series E1 funding and rapid growth to make this possible. Our local payment network now penetrates more than 100 countries through integrations with more than 80 banks!

Thousands of you waved goodbye to the excessive fees and wasteful overheads that were holding your business back and have been loving our simple, transparent pricing.

Web-based proposal company Qwilr is now saving USD 7,200 per month in unnecessary fees and administration hours by using Borderless Cards.

And fast-growing ambassador marketing platform Brandbassador started using Airwallex to avoid a 3% fee from forced FX conversions back to GBP when using Stripe to collect USD.

Adding new currencies

We want to offer full global coverage, like no business, bank or fintech ever thought possible. In 2021, we added 15 new currencies, meaning you can now do things like pay out a supplier in Mexico, convert ZAR from South African customers to USD, and hold NOK to pay for your subscriptions in Norway — all without you or your customers having to bear the cost.

New currencies: MXN, ILS, ZAR, SEK, NOK, CZK, HUF, HRK, RON, PLN, BDT, LKR, NPR, PKR, TRY.

Putting your spend management on autopilot

Our philosophy is that borderless business shouldn’t just be possible. It should be effortless. 

We first introduced our multi-currency Virtual Cards two years ago in Australia, and have since rolled this out to Hong Kong, the UK and soon in the US. This gives you total control and visibility over your payments, and makes it easier and more affordable to manage your software subscriptions, team budgets, travel, and everything your business needs. 

Since then, we’ve matured quickly, adding Digital Wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay™) and Physical Cards, so you can pay the way you want, wherever you are in the world.

If you’re based in Australia, the US, Hong Kong or the UK, these cards will soon come with in-built expense management so you can set spending limits and track your entire team’s transactions in one place.

This is where your cards are being used:

What were your favourite ways to use Borderless Cards in 2021? It should come as no surprise that most of you spent big on digital advertising, software subscriptions and cloud computing services — with tech adoption accelerated by the shift to remote work and distributed teams.

More ways to get paid

We wanted to give businesses the power to reach customers and new revenue streams without borders. And we delivered on that promise.

In 2021, we launched a global-first payment processor to help you increase sales and win back your profit margin with the launch of Online Payments. Now, your customers can enjoy a swift checkout experience and make purchases with their preferred payment method. 170+ countries and counting.

We also launched Payment Links so you can accept domestic and international payments in minutes, without a website or app. So far, you’ve already generated thousands of links or QR codes to sell a product or service or start a subscription.

And to make it effortless for you to capitalise on the Japanese market, we added JPY Global Accounts to our existing 11 foreign currency accounts. That means you can instantly collect and hold customer funds in Japanese Yen without the hassle of visiting a bank branch.

Expanding into new markets

We have rapidly expanded our geographic footprint in the last year. We’re proud to say that we successfully launched our services in both EMEA and US markets, while strengthening our foothold in Australia, Hong Kong and China. And since we’re only one month into 2022, we may as well mention our recent launch in Singapore!

Helping you monetise new channels

Just like you, we’re continuing to innovate. We’ve been working tirelessly to help our growing base of Platform customers discover even more revenue opportunities. For those of you who are still getting acquainted with our APIs, Airwallex also lets you monetise new channels without having to build your own infrastructure from scratch.

In 2021, up-and-coming wealthtech company, Stake, accelerated their growth by introducing ASX share trading and the beta launch of their self-managed super fund product in Australia. This partnership will also pave the way for Stake’s international expansion into the UK, New Zealand and Brazil.

Helping you become a fintech, too

Removing the barriers to help you deliver innovative products and experiences to your own customers was top priority for us in 2021. It’s astonishing to think that we are now helping you to become a 21st-century fintech without the need for licences!

Keeping your money safe and secure

Security and compliance are always at the core of our business. In 2021, we were proud to reinforce our commitment to your safety and privacy by becoming SOC2 Type 2 compliant. We value the trust our customers place in us to manage their finances and build their business on our infrastructure. SOC2 enables us to maintain that trust as we continue to scale our products globally by continually evaluating our mechanisms and improving our security protocols.

We’ve also been leading the fight against fraud and financial crime over the past year. We’ve built several risk management solutions to protect our customers and platform from cybercriminals, like improving our Global Trade Point Network (GTPN) fraud detection and prevention controls and optimising our transaction monitoring models from end to end.

If you use Online Payments and Payment Links, you’ll know you’re in safe hands. We are building the very best fraud detection and prevention models and rules to defend merchants from potential threats. And in 2022, we’ll continue to enable a safe and secure payment network for our customers.

Delighting you was mission-critical

Speaking of our customers, our mission has always been about you. No matter how fast we grow, or how big we get, we never lose sight of why Airwallex was built in the first place. The products and services we built on in 2021 are designed to solve real, common problems.

In late 2021, we were thrilled to introduce a new low-friction onboarding experience designed to get you saving as quickly as possible. As always, your satisfaction and confidence in us are mission-critical.

We couldn’t have done it without you

Thank you to each and every one of you who’s been a part of Airwallex’s incredible growth journey so far. We’ve achieved a lot together over the past 6 years, and hearing the impact our technology has had on your growth and success makes it all worthwhile. Here’s to many more milestone years to come!

Want to help shape the future of Airwallex? Please answer this short survey.