Airwallex bets on growth, not caution, in the tariff era

Simon Huang also contributed to this report.

Lucy Liu is no Charlie’s Angel, but as co-founder and president of Airwallex, she has a front-row seat at a company last valued at US$5.6 billion.

In her role, Liu is instrumental to shaping the Singapore-based fintech unicorn’s global vision. She also oversees Airwallex’s corporate affairs, including its social impact initiatives, and drives cross-functional alignment across the business.

While she once considered becoming a venture capitalist, she eventually chose to be a co-founder as it let her be more “involved” in running a company.

Liu, who grew up in Shanghai and Auckland, was on a career break when she met fellow University of Melbourne graduates and eventual Airwallex co-founders Jack Zhang and Max Li.

Zhang and Li were running a cafe in Melbourne as a side business when they realized that methods for paying suppliers in China were stuck in the past.

They “only had the choice of using very traditional wire transfer or like telegraphic transfer type of payments,” Liu tells Tech in Asia in a recent interview. “We thought surely, businesses these days need a more updated version of that.”

Higher tariffs? Bring it on

Airwallex is among the fintech startups that have popped up over the past decade to help companies manage expenses, run global payroll, and move money across borders.

Airwallex processes transactions faster and cheaper than most of its rivals, Liu says, explaining that its infrastructure doesn’t “layer on top of outdated systems” and integrates directly with local payment systems.

For instance, a business in Singapore that uses Airwallex can accept payments made through a variety of methods including bank apps, e-wallets like GrabPay and GooglePay, and buy now, pay later services like Atome.

It’s worth noting that competing providers like US-based Stripe offer a wide range of local payment methods as well.

Compared to Stripe, Airwallex claims that its fees for domestic and international card payments are lower – at least for businesses in Singapore. It also has features such as multicurrency accounts, expense management, and international transfers.

Since 2015, the firm has raised nearly a billion dollars in funding from investors including Square Peg, HongShan Capital (the former China arm of Sequoia Capital), and Tencent.

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