Airwallex, a financial platform for businesses, announced it will inject $590 million into its UK business across the next 5 years (2026 to 2030) to drive local and growth. The investment will be spent on a range of activities “including a hiring surge which will raise full-time UK headcount by 60% – from around 100 today to over 160 by end of 2026 – and new and expanded products including Spend AI, credit cards and recurring billing SaaS.”
It comes as Airwallex completes a Series G fundraising of $330M, which has valued the global business “at $8billion, and as the company focuses more on the growth opportunity in Europe and the Americas following a decade of growth in its founding market of Australia, and its successful scaling across the Asia-Pacific region.”
Airwallex has now appointed Christos Chamberlain, the former General Manager of international logistics firm Flexport, “to lead operations across the UK and wider European region.”
Chamberlain reportedly has experience and “specialises in overcoming the regulatory, financial and operational complexities of cross border trade.”
The move reflects the role that the UK and Europe will play in Airwallex’s future growth, and signals the company’s “determination to become the go-to financial platform for fast-scaling international businesses.”
Jack Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of Airwallex, has said that while overall investment in the UK has “faced headwinds in recent years, our commitment is moving in the opposite direction.”
Zhang added that they “continue to see potential here, especially as the financial ecosystem pivots to a world defined by AI and cross-border trading norms.”
This multi-year investment reflects “confidence in the UK as a launchpad for regional growth across EMEA, and our determination to build the financial infrastructure businesses need to compete internationally.”
Christos Chamberlain, General Manager of Airwallex UK and EU, added that companies in the UK and Europe are navigating “increasingly complex financial and operational challenges as they scale.”
They further noted that Airwallex is positioned to “remove that friction.”
Chamberlain also mentioned that he is now eager too “join the team following an impressive period of growth and to help accelerate expansion as they strengthen our local presence and product suite and empower more ambitious businesses operating across borders.”
Airwallex has also announced that it will invest additional “amounts in other key geographies, including the Netherlands, France and Germany in early 2026, with other markets to follow.”
Airwallex’s London team recently moved “to a new office in Fitzrovia, and at over 16,000 sq ft is more than double the size of the previous space.”
Earlier this month the global business also marked its 10th year of operations, and last month it crossed the “$1 billion annualised run rate revenue (ARR) threshold.”
As covered, Airwallex is a financial platform for businesses.
They are building what they claim is the so-called future of global banking for a borderless, real-time, intelligent economy.
Companies – from startups to public enterprises – use Airwallex to manage banking and financial operations, or to build and “monetize their own financial products using Airwallex infrastructure.”
Founded in Melbourne back in 2015, Airwallex says that it holds various licenses across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
This backbone enables Airwallex products at scale, including the following solutions: payment acceptance, billing, global accounts, corporate cards, and spend management.
The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore with employees across 26 offices.