Australia’s Airwallex Launches Its Cross Border Services In US

Melbourne, Australia-based FinTech Airwallex announced in a press release it will operate under newly-approved licenses in the United States — the first North American country in which it has a presence.

The company, which specializes in cross-border payments, also stated in the release that it is setting up one of five engineering hubs in San Francisco, where Airwallex already has an office with about 30 employees. The other engineering centers are in Melbourne; Shanghai, China; Syndey, Australia; and the Netherlands.

The expansion into the U.S. is occurring through a partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust, according to the release.

Airwallex’s services are aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and include cards and international collection, the release stated. For larger customers, the company offers an embedded-payment application programming interface (API).

The company, which was founded in 2015, has 900 employees in 12 offices around the world, according to the release.

“The idea behind Airwallex came nearly six years ago,” Co-Founder and CEO Jack Zhang said in the release. “My co-founder and I loved coffee and started a small cafe in Melbourne. As small business owners, we quickly saw the pain points with global payments and the impact of high [foreign exchange (FX)] fees and banking costs when sourcing for supplies. We wanted to build out a better financial and payment solution for businesses operating across borders and ensure they are empowered to grow.”

Now, he suggested in the release, the company’s main value proposition is simplicity of use and a solid infrastructure.

“With several local bank partnerships and licenses, Airwallex will progressively introduce its suite of products and services to businesses in the U.S., including multi-currency cards and an online payment acceptance solution that will allow businesses to collect payments from customers around the world,” the release stated.