NZ high-growth platform Auror optimise their tech stack with Airwallex

Exciting things are brewing in New Zealand (NZ). Cities are fast becoming global hubs for innovation and unique ideas, and there’s no better ‌example of that than Auror. 

Founded in 2014, the retail crime intelligence platform has seen a meteoric rise over the last decade. Now trusted by over 80% of the retail enterprise market in New Zealand, Auror have set their sights on market domination and have made significant moves in Australia, the US and the UK. 

Says Georgia Burns, Auror’s Strategic Finance Director. “It's just incredible that this company was founded by a few Kiwis that saw an opportunity. They realised that $100B+ was lost every year by retailers but there was no effective technology being used to report, solve, or prevent crime. They built a solution and it’s now grown into a huge NZ success story that’s making a real difference in the world of retail crime not just in New Zealand but internationally.”

Airwallex is designed to support companies of all sizes around the world, but success stories out of Australia and New Zealand are especially exciting for us. Read on to learn more about how we’re supporting Auror with their big growth ambitions.

Simplifying processes across teams

Internal finance professionals have links to every team within a business. The smoother their operations can be, the easier processes are cross-functionally. 

Georgia sees this goal of simplification as a key priority; “I think our job in finance is to enable and simplify,” she says. “Especially as we grow – any way that we can automate the operations and administrative side of everybody's day-to-day, that helps them and helps us as well.”

With every product we build at Airwallex, intuitiveness and simplicity of use is a key consideration. “We have teams based around the world and it’s very quick for our team to get set up with a card no matter where they’re based, and user-friendly to spend and reconcile on the go,” says Georgia. “And easy for our finance team to manage as well.”

Borderless Cards, boundless potential

Out of the Airwallex product suite, Georgia’s team have found particular value in our Borderless Cards – which are currently available for their international operations, and will be launched in New Zealand in September. 

When asked what made Airwallex their preferred solution, Georgia pointed to our Cards capabilities.

Georgia Burns

Strategic Finance Director, Auror

“One thing we like about Airwallex, which differentiates it from other providers out there, is the team card approach as well as the individual cards.”

"We have team cards set up for the People Experience, team, IT and Finance, which have proven to be incredibly helpful. If cards are lost or compromised, or if a team member leaves, individual cards are typically cancelled which can be a pain for subscriptions. However, with team cards, there's no need to cancel the card or transfer all the subscriptions and charges. You simply remove the departing user from the card, allowing it to remain active. It’s a great feature."

Avoiding admin and winning back time

When asked about the amount of time the team has saved by using Airwallex Cards, Georgia responds, “a lot!”

“Card set up is instant and online - no need for our team to head into a bank branch. Uploading receipts is easy via the app.”

Georgia Burns

Strategic Finance Director, Auror

“And it connects to Xero, which is really great because that’s what we use for accounting. I would say we save hours a week.”

Xero-friction integrations

Clients around the world love our integration with Xero, another homegrown NZ business success story. For Auror, having a great integration with the platform was a must when looking for a financial operations platform. 

“A solution that had an integration with Xero was a non negotiable for us. Because again, it saves time through automation.”

Georgia Burns

Strategic Finance Director, Auror

“You have all the receipt information and transactions reconciled in Airwallex and that just feeds into Xero automatically.”

“It’s a massive time saver - to the point that we just wouldn't use a solution that didn't have an integration with Xero, just due to the volume of transactions and manual work that would be required otherwise. It's amazing.”

Servicing ANZ with pride

Airwallex was born in a coffee shop in Melbourne, Australia - so we have a lot of love for the ANZ region, despite now being a global player. 

We care about bringing big Kiwi ideas to the world and removing blockers to international growth. Our advanced international payment infrastructure supports this, allowing us to offer business accounts in over 60 regions.

Georgia Burns

Strategic Finance Director, Auror

“I would say the other key piece about our decision to use Airwallex was that it's available in a lot of different countries, and that's a real blocker with other solutions out there.”

“ANZ tends to get a bit left out by the big global solutions. With our head office in New Zealand, we needed a product that works for our whole global team. And we wanted one solution as opposed to a different system for every team which is inefficient.”

“Our teams regularly travel around the world. Having to switch between different systems and apps for that would be an absolute nightmare.”

More Airwallex products are heading to Aotearoa

We’re excited to give our clients in New Zealand a lot of extra love in the next few months, as we launch even more Airwallex products into the region. Borderless Cards and Expense Management are now live, with Payments coming soon in 2025. 

Georgia, having witnessed the success of Cards in other regions, was eagerly anticipating their launch, knowing the game-changing impact they were about to bring.

Georgia Burns

Strategic Finance Director, Auror

“We're extremely excited for Cards to launch in New Zealand, we’ve been waiting for this. It's going to save us more time and really help our travellers based in New Zealand, which is really exciting in terms of our growth journey.”

With launching in a new market comes the opportunity to give feedback and have your voice heard. It’s something that our clients around the world get huge value from, and something that rarely happens at a traditional financial services provider.

Our Account Managers care deeply about your experience and are always ready to connect with product teams to make sure your feedback is front-of-mind.

“The other thing I like is the receptiveness of Airwallex when it comes to new features on the platform, as well as responses from Meg [Hornsby, Account Manager] and the team when I do have any questions. If I do have recommendations for new features in the platform, I’m able to share them and they are considered for the roadmap, which is pretty cool.”

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is factual information only and is not intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product. Airwallex (New Zealand) Limited is registered on the NZ Financial Services Provider Register (FSPR) with number FSP1001602. All product timelines are provisional only and subject to change.