By Lina Irawan 
This vision underscores a significant strategic pivot for Airwallex, a global fintech powerhouse that originated in Australia. Initially, the company carved out its niche by facilitating seamless cross-border payments for traditional industries such as e-commerce, online gaming, and travel – a space also occupied by prominent players like Wise and Revolut. However, as artificial intelligence fundamentally reshapes how businesses manage subscriptions, payment models, and myriad other operational facets, Airwallex is aggressively evolving its offerings to lead the charge in what it terms "autonomous finance" and "agentic commerce."
The company’s ambitious trajectory is backed by robust investor confidence. In late June, Airwallex successfully closed a Series H funding round, securing an impressive $320 million. This round was spearheaded by Addition, a steadfast returning investor, and saw participation from other major financial institutions including Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Amex Ventures, and Washington University in St. Louis. This influx of capital propelled Airwallex’s valuation to a formidable $11 billion, a substantial increase from its $8 billion valuation just months prior in December, when it raised $330 million in another Addition-led funding initiative. The rapid succession of these high-value funding rounds highlights the market’s strong belief in Airwallex’s growth potential and strategic direction.
At the time of the June funding announcement, CEO Jack Zhang articulated the company’s forward-looking agenda. The capital, he stated, would enable Airwallex to "move faster into Airwallex’s next chapter: autonomous finance, agentic commerce, and the infrastructure to power both." This declaration signals a profound shift from merely facilitating payments to building a comprehensive, AI-driven financial ecosystem for global businesses.
Liu, reflecting on the company’s fundraising prowess, shared with Fortune, "Our fundraising has been quite rapid over the past two years." She clarified that the most recent Series H round stemmed from "ongoing conversations" with existing investors like Addition, indicating sustained interest and trust. "We have a lot ahead of us, and we just want to be able to have enough capital to fast-charge our plans," she added, emphasizing the company’s determination to accelerate its ambitious global expansion and product development roadmap.
Chasing Customers Across Borders with AI-Driven Innovation
Airwallex’s genesis over a decade ago in Melbourne, Australia, was born out of a palpable frustration experienced by its founders, Jack Zhang and Max Li. Their struggle to manage the complex and costly cross-border payments for a coffee shop that imported goods served as the direct inspiration for a platform designed to simplify international money movement for businesses. This initial pain point has since blossomed into a sophisticated fintech solution serving over 675,000 businesses globally, boasting over $1 billion in annualized run rate revenue. While Liu maintained discretion regarding specific profitability figures, she confirmed that the company is "EBITDA positive" and enjoys a "healthy gross margin," signaling strong operational efficiency and a sustainable business model in a competitive market.
The company’s embrace of AI is now manifesting in two flagship products: T:0, the automated bookkeeping system, and Ari, an agentic consumer wallet engineered for seamless one-click checkouts. T:0, with its promise of automating entire financial departments, leverages advanced machine learning algorithms to process transactions, reconcile accounts, and generate reports, significantly reducing manual effort and potential errors. Ari, on the other hand, aims to revolutionize consumer payments by acting as an intelligent agent, streamlining the checkout experience across various platforms and potentially learning user preferences to optimize purchasing decisions. These innovations are central to Airwallex’s vision of an "autonomous" and "agentic" financial future, where AI not only handles routine tasks but also anticipates needs and executes complex financial actions with minimal human intervention.
Simultaneously, Airwallex is undertaking an aggressive global expansion, venturing into new, high-growth markets including the U.S., South Korea, Mexico, and Brazil. Liu candidly admitted, "it looks like the company is expanding everywhere," underscoring the breadth of their international ambitions. This expansion strategy is multifaceted. In some regions, like Mexico, Airwallex has opted for strategic acquisitions, exemplified by its purchase of MexPago to secure a local payments license, thereby fast-tracking market entry and regulatory compliance. In other markets, the impetus for expansion comes directly from its existing client base. As Liu explained, entering a market like Brazil to serve one client often unearths new opportunities with businesses looking to expand in the opposite direction, towards Asia, creating a reciprocal demand for Airwallex’s services. "Local businesses are all looking away to expand globally, and easier ways to operate globally," she noted, highlighting a universal desire among SMEs for simplified international operations.
The U.S. market, in particular, represents a critical frontier for Airwallex. CEO Jack Zhang emphasized this in a Fortune interview, stating, "If you’re a U.S. company that wants to sell in Australia, wants to sell in Singapore, wants to sell in the U.K., wants to sell in Canada, wants to do that efficiently, and wants to have banking, payments, spend, and treasury management all in a single platform, that’s where Airwallex comes in." This positions Airwallex as a comprehensive, single-platform solution for American businesses aiming for global reach, directly competing with established players and newer fintech challengers.
A Rebound in Venture Funding, but IPO Caution Lingers
Airwallex’s impressive succession of funding rounds is indicative of a broader resurgence in Asian venture funding, which has shown signs of recovery after a subdued period. According to a report by KPMG, VC-backed companies across Asia collectively raised $50.8 billion in the second quarter of the year, marking the strongest performance since the fourth quarter of 2021. This signals renewed investor appetite, particularly for innovative technologies and scalable business models.
However, the landscape remains highly concentrated. China alone accounted for a dominant $35.1 billion of that total, with a pronounced focus on AI and hardware sectors. The four largest deals in Asia during this period were all directed towards Chinese AI developers: DeepSeek, ByteDance, StepFun, and Moonshot AI, underscoring China’s strategic investment in artificial intelligence capabilities. Despite this notable venture spree, the total VC funding in Asia is still significantly dwarfed by that in the U.S., where startups attracted a staggering $145 billion in the same quarter, illustrating the profound depth and liquidity of the American venture capital market.
A discernible trend within the current investment climate is the increasing preference for later-stage investments. Companies like Airwallex, with its Series H, and even data processing giant Databricks, which is reportedly pursuing an unprecedented Series M funding round valuing it at $188 billion, are staying private for longer. This reflects a more cautious approach from investors. Liu observed, "Investors are going more towards later stage investments. It’s not that they don’t have capital. They just want to see success, right? They want to see a track record before they deploy capital into that particular company." This shift suggests a greater emphasis on proven business models, sustainable revenue growth, and clear paths to profitability or market dominance before significant capital injections.
The prolonged private status of many high-growth companies also stems from a collective wariness regarding public market debuts. Even industry titans like Dublin-based Stripe, founded in 2010 and generating reported revenues of $6.8 billion, continue to defer an IPO. Liu noted, "Larger companies are still able to raise money without going public. Most people are still a little bit on the fence about going public." The current market conditions, characterized by volatility and intense competition for institutional investor attention, contribute to this hesitation. With recent mega-U.S. IPOs such as SpaceX’s $85.7 billion debut and SK Hynix’s $26.5 billion ADR sale, alongside anticipated offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic, the market for new listings is crowded.
Airwallex itself is carefully navigating these waters. Liu confirmed that the company aims to be "IPO-ready" by the end of this year, but a definitive date remains contingent on prevailing market conditions. "It’s just not the best time, given how complicated things are," she stated, adding, "I’m sure all the pre-approval companies will tell you this." This pragmatic approach underscores a strategic decision to prioritize long-term value creation over an immediate public listing in an unfavorable environment.
Geopolitics and Regulatory Scrutiny: Navigating a Complex Global Landscape
Operating as a global fintech company, Airwallex finds itself increasingly at the intersection of technological innovation, international finance, and complex geopolitical dynamics. In June, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a vocal critic of China, dispatched a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, alleging profound ties between Airwallex and Beijing. Cotton asserted, "While Airwallex markets itself as an Australian company, its ties to Communist China run deep," citing a reported 20% stake held by Tencent and HongShan (formerly Sequoia China) and invoking China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which mandates companies to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services. The senator called for an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and potentially a divestment of Airwallex’s Chinese investors. These concerns were amplified by venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures and a board director of a competing fintech platform, Ramp, who labeled Airwallex a "Chinese backdoor into sensitive American data."
Liu chose not to directly address the letter, instead deferring to a prior company statement. However, she framed the broader regulatory landscape as an evolving opportunity rather than solely a threat. "There’s a new category being created for global businesses like ours, which is good, because you can imagine trying to fit us into a box where we don’t really belong," she remarked, highlighting the need for tailored regulatory frameworks for global, digitally native companies.
Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang has vehemently refuted these allegations, labeling them "false." In a detailed public statement, Zhang clarified that U.S. customer data is stored domestically and is inaccessible to staff based in China. He also specified that Tencent holds a passive stake of less than 10% and does not possess a board seat. To bolster its commitment to data security and transparency, Airwallex has engaged third-party firms to audit its privacy and data controls. Further underscoring its proactive stance, the Financial Times reported in May that Airwallex had begun relocating certain China-based staff who do not interact with Chinese customers out of the country, a move a spokesperson attributed to data security considerations.
Beyond U.S. geopolitical concerns, Airwallex has also faced regulatory scrutiny in its home market. In January, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), Australia’s primary financial intelligence agency, mandated Airwallex to appoint an external auditor. This directive was issued to ensure the company’s compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) obligations, prompted by suspicions of "serious noncompliance." Liu affirmed Airwallex’s full cooperation with AUSTRAC, characterizing the probe as an industry-wide initiative rather than a specific targeting of Airwallex. She suggested, "I think we’re just a little bit more noticeable because of our growth," implying that the company’s rapid expansion naturally draws more regulatory attention. This incident underscores the critical importance for all global fintechs to maintain robust compliance frameworks in an increasingly vigilant regulatory environment.
The Overconfidence That Fueled a Global Journey
Lucy Liu, at 35, embodies a remarkable journey that began in northern China, continued through Auckland, New Zealand, and Melbourne, Australia, for her college education, and eventually led her to the international financial hub of Hong Kong, where she honed her skills at Barclays and the state-owned China International Capital Corporation. Her pivotal involvement with Airwallex commenced in 2015 when her college friend, Max Li, introduced her to Jack Zhang in Melbourne. Zhang was seeking $500,000 in seed funding for his nascent startup; Liu, then on a "career break" from finance, boldly offered $1 million.
Reflecting on that audacious decision, Liu laughs, "I was 25, and I had a bit of an overconfidence situation." This self-deprecating humor belies a keen entrepreneurial instinct and a profound belief in the founders’ vision. Her early commitment laid the groundwork for Airwallex’s global trajectory, a path that soon involved extensive travel. "I remember traveling so much in 2017 and 2018. I would be on a plane almost every other day," she recalls, painting a picture of the relentless effort required to build a cross-border payments platform from the ground up.
Liu’s influence and achievements have not gone unnoticed. She is recognized on Fortune‘s prestigious Most Powerful Women Asia ranking, acknowledging her leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Liu expresses a degree of discomfort with gender-specific accolades. "I actually have very strong feelings about being labeled," she states, articulating a desire to transcend gender-based distinctions. "People can often say: ‘It’s very hard for women to raise money—except for you.’ I don’t want people to feel like they’re exceptions," she explains, advocating for a narrative that celebrates success and capability irrespective of gender.
Australia’s Small Pond: Launching Global Giants
Australia has unexpectedly emerged as a fertile ground for groundbreaking tech companies in recent years, defying its geographical remoteness and relatively smaller domestic market. Airwallex stands alongside other global success stories like Canva, the design platform now valued at $42 billion, and Atlassian, the enterprise software giant behind Jira, Confluence, and Trello. This represents a significant transformation from a decade ago, when Australian founders predominantly focused on solving local problems, and the country’s angel investor base was too nascent to support ambitious global ventures. Liu vividly remembers Airwallex’s own struggle to raise seed capital within Australia, a stark contrast to the current landscape where Australian VC funds are growing in size and sophistication, increasingly rivaling their U.S. or Asian counterparts.
Beyond the growing venture capital ecosystem, Australia’s appeal is multifaceted. Its high levels of human capital, relatively abundant access to natural resources, and stable, friendly diplomatic relations with Washington are increasingly attracting U.S. tech companies looking for strategic expansion or talent pools.
Nonetheless, the country’s inherent challenges—its remoteness and smaller market size—can still pose hurdles for launching truly global businesses. Acknowledging these realities, Airwallex last year strategically designated Singapore and San Francisco as its global co-headquarters, shifting away from its former sole base in Australia. Liu, however, views the concept of a singular headquarters as less critical for a truly global company that strategically distributes its talent and leadership across continents. Yet, she concedes, "Australia is quite small. If you’re really trying to grow a team, then the pipeline of talent and the market itself will restrict you a little bit. Businesses have to think outside of Australia to expand, grow and scale."
Liu concludes on an optimistic yet realistic note for her home country: "AI and tech companies are possible in Australia. They just need a bit more help, funding, and mentorship to really be able to grow globally." Her insights offer a valuable perspective on the unique blend of opportunities and challenges inherent in fostering global tech innovation from Australia, ultimately showcasing Airwallex as a testament to what can be achieved with vision, capital, and an unwavering commitment to international expansion.
This article is part of Fortune’s “Asia Agenda” column, which explores the strategies and lessons learned from Asia-Pacific’s leading business executives.
