After seeing annual processing volumes spike to exceed $100 billion, global payments provider Airwallex is hoping to keep up the momentum of its current “hyper growth” phase, said Ravi Adusumilli, the company’s executive general manager for the Americas.

The company, originally founded in Australia, has yet to enter some countries with the largest global economies, such as Korea and India, Adusumilli said. However, it has rapidly expanded into new and emerging markets across North and Latin America over the past several years.

For example, Airwallex announced plans to enter Mexico in 2023 with the acquisition of payment provider MexPago, and brought its payment acceptance solution to U.S. merchants this past April, according to company press releases.

The provider of payments, treasury and embedded finance solutions is now eyeing further expansion in key markets such as Brazil, Adusumilli said.

“Our strategy is now centered on organic licensing in Brazil,” he said in an interview. “We'll be investing a lot more headcount there next year, and in Mexico City. Those are the two immediate bets we're making.”

International expansion has been a top focus for the privately-held fintech over the past few years, with the company focusing on creating the “financial operating system that the CFO needs to be able to…look at everything,” Adusumilli said.

Its product development and expansion strategies are crafted with that in mind. “What else is the CFO looking at in his or her financial stack that we need to help build the software for?” he said.

Airwallex approaches new markets with that lens in mind, seeking out key players and looking to establish money transfer and payment licenses to ensure a more direct connection to its customers, the business-to-business payment provider said in an August press release.

The company has inked partnerships with businesses such as Intuit’s Quickbooks and BILL, a financial operations platform, and has secured money transmitter licenses, or exemptions, in 49 U.S. states and territories, according to the August release.

When it comes to Brazil, Airwallex is “in the super early ground floor stage of getting a license to operate,” Adusumilli said.

“Our strategy there is to go through the licensing process ourselves, organically,” he said. “We already have boots on the ground in the country to help us with that licensing process.”

When it comes to further expansion in its established markets, Airwallex is keeping a careful eye on emerging payment trends such as embedded finance and real-time payments. The company has entrenched itself further in North America this year by establishing a permanent U.S. headquarters in San Francisco and opening offices in Austin and New York, according to its August press release.  

Its growth in North America has skyrocketed — with revenue for the region growing by 300% —  due to several trends, including a surge in interest in embedded finance across businesses of all sizes.

Embedded finance describes products which bring digital banking or payments services directly to a business’ platform, eliminating the need for customers to jump to another platform or service. Such solutions have seen a rapid rise in markets such as Europe, where embedded finance solutions generated between €20 billion to €30 billion in revenues, according to McKinsey estimates — representing about 3% of total banking revenues.

Even small and medium-size enterprised “are looking to integrate more and more financial services into their set of products,” Adusumilli said. “So it's these trends we see apply to both small, medium businesses and large enterprises.”

The company has partnered with several other fintechs to better integrate its embedded finance products. Those partners include Canadian business Float to expand its bill pay offering, and financial technology company Brex.

In addition to embedded finance, the company is closely watching the development of real-time payments in the U.S., Adusumilli said.

The U.S. has seen “a slower start than other countries that not only have provided a great network for consumers to pay, but [are] now taking those networks outside" of their countries, he said.

Still, Airwallex is “excited about the real-time payments potential in the medium to long term,” he said.

By Grace Noto on Sep 12, 2024
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