{"id":3489388,"date":"2026-04-18T05:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/once-within-reach-for-a-takeover-stripe-and-airwallex-are-now-pursuing-one-another\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:20:11","slug":"once-within-reach-for-a-takeover-stripe-and-airwallex-are-now-pursuing-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/once-within-reach-for-a-takeover-stripe-and-airwallex-are-now-pursuing-one-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Once within reach for a takeover, Stripe and Airwallex are now pursuing one another."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Jack Zhang, at 34 years old and three and a half years into his startup journey, found himself in a meeting with one of Silicon Valley’s top investors. Michael Moritz from Sequoia had welcomed him into his home \u2014 which had, as Zhang remembers, a couple of floors and a view directly facing the Golden Gate Bridge \u2014 to discuss a potential sale.<\/p>\n

Stripe was interested in acquiring Airwallex for $1.2 billion. At that juncture, the Melbourne-based company was generating about $2 million annually. The figures were hard to ignore: a revenue multiple close to 600. Moritz emphasized that Patrick Collison was a once-in-a-generation founder. The acquisition would evolve into something remarkable. Zhang considered this. He spent two weeks wandering San Francisco, feeling agitated and unable to think clearly. Eventually, he agreed.<\/p>\n

He then flew back home, nearly 8,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI deeply contemplated my motivations for building Airwallex,\u201d he mentioned earlier this week during a conversation with this editor from overseas. \u201cHaving been in business for three and a half years, the company was growing exponentially in 2018, and I had only just begun to feel what entrepreneurship was about \u2014 and that’s what I had always dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of his three co-founders opposed the deal, which contributed to his decision. However, he pointed to the clearest sign: looking at the whiteboard in his office where the vision remained, still incomplete: to create a financial infrastructure enabling any business to operate globally as though it were local.<\/p>\n

This choice is becoming increasingly prophetic. Airwallex now reports over $1.3 billion in annualized revenue and is expanding at an 85% year-over-year rate. It handles nearly $300 billion in annualized transaction volume, according to him. Achieving this success hasn\u2019t come without challenges \u2014 and Zhang argues that these struggles are fundamental to the journey.<\/p>\n

His conviction extends well beyond mere business tactics. Zhang was raised in Qingdao, a northern Chinese port city, relocating to Melbourne at 15, alone and with limited English, staying with a host family. Following a financial crisis in his family, he undertook four jobs to complete a computer science degree at the University of Melbourne, as reported by the Australian Financial Review \u2014 bartending, dishwashing, working overnight shifts at a gas station, and fruit-picking during school breaks, which he has described as the toughest job he ever held. Later, he spent years developing trading algorithms at an Australian investment bank, a well-paid position that never felt entirely \u201cfulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Prior to Airwallex, he initiated around 10 business ventures: a magazine at 14, a real estate firm, import-export activities transferring wine and olive oil from Australia to Asia, textiles in reverse, and a burger franchise.<\/p>\n

While managing a coffee shop in Melbourne, the concept for Airwallex emerged. As he tried to pay coffee bean suppliers in Brazil, Indonesia, and Guatemala, his co-founder Max Li repeatedly saw payments vanish within correspondent banking systems \u2014 flagged and halted by American banks enforcing OFAC sanctions, sometimes returning weeks after being sent. \u201cThis compelled me to delve into how correspondent banking operates,\u201d Zhang stated, \u201cthe functioning of SWIFT, and how we could develop our own global money movement network.\u201d<\/p>\n

The core concept remains but has expanded significantly. Airwallex now possesses nearly 90 financial licenses across 50 markets. Zhang estimates Stripe holds perhaps half as many. Acquiring those licenses has been highly labor-intensive \u2014 the process in Japan alone took seven years. In some emerging markets, it was necessary to purchase shell companies with licenses no longer issued by central banks and completely rebuild the underlying technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t simply vibe-code an integration with Mexico\u2019s central bank,\u201d Zhang explained. \u201cWe require a secure facility \u2014 access to the central bank integration necessitates a biometric scan just to enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rationale for obtaining these licenses goes beyond superficial regulatory compliance. In Japan, for example, Stripe and Square can process payments, but they must instantaneously transfer funds to the merchant’s account. Airwallex, thanks to its fund transfer operator license, is able to retain those funds within its ecosystem. This allows a customer to generate bank accounts, issue cards, and spend money without leaving the platform.<\/p>\n

The foreign exchange economics alone are substantial: a U.S. seller settling transactions in Australian dollars avoids the 2% to 3% conversion fee typically charged by processors like Stripe when moving money back to U.S. dollars \u2014 and can utilize those local balances to pay local suppliers, manage payroll, and cover digital marketing costs, all at interbank rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou no longer operate merely as a U.S. entity,\u201d Zhang noted. \u201cYou function like a company with global entities, but without the necessity of physically establishing those entities.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deliberate slow growth was intentional, and Zhang frequently returns to a principle he refers to as the \u201cpath of maximum resistance.\u201d Each license, each bank integration, every local payment rail that Airwallex painstakingly assembled has erected a barrier against competition. \u201cIt took us six and a half years to hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue,\u201d Zhang stated. \u201cThen, it took just over three years to reach a billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The competitive reasoning, in his perspective, hinges on a fundamental understanding of owning infrastructure versus depending on someone else’s. If you lack control over the full payment process and something goes awry, you can\u2019t access the underlying data to clarify it for your customer. You cannot seamlessly introduce new products on top of another’s system. \u201cBuilding on existing infrastructure,\u201d he remarked, \u201cis simply not scalable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, Airwallex and Stripe have operated in largely distinct regions, targeting different customers. That is evolving. As Stripe ventures deeper into international territories, and as Airwallex makes substantive advancements into the U.S. market, the overlap is increasing.<\/p>\n

Previously, the main purchasers of Airwallex were the CFO offices in Australia and Southeast Asia, where it has gained a solid foothold \u2014 finance directors, treasury teams \u2014 distinguishing it from Stripe, whose customer acquisition has largely stemmed from U.S. developers selecting a default option for a new business. Over 90% of Airwallex’s clients first engage with a business account product, leading to utilizing payments and spend management subsequently. More than half are using multiple products, says Zhang.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, there are obstacles Zhang does not underestimate. The most significant might be Stripe’s status as Silicon Valley’s darling, its privately held shares creating millionaires throughout the tech scene. Additionally, a brand gap persists. Airwallex must embed itself within the mindset of engineers and developers \u2014 not merely finance teams \u2014 so that founders instinctively turn to it. \u201cOur brand simply isn’t there yet,\u201d he remarked. \u201cIt\u2019s a tougher competition to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

This competitive landscape is closely monitored from various perspectives. Sequoia supported Airwallex early on \u2014 although the deal was brokered through Sequoia Capital China, which has since rebranded as Hongshan \u2014 and continues to be one of the company\u2019s largest investors. The firm Greenoaks Capital also has stakes in both companies.<\/p>\n

Zhang dismissed any notion of discomfort regarding the overlapping investors. According to him, the investors are wagering on a vast market.<\/p>\n

However, this raises the valuation discussion. Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February tender offer \u2014 marking a 74% increase from the previous year \u2014 after processing $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025. Meanwhile, Airwallex received an $8 billion valuation in December, making it worth approximately a twentieth of that. But Zhang contends that Stripe’s payment volume is only about six times Airwallex’s, not 20 times. With 85% annual growth and expected revenue of $2 billion within the next year, Airwallex is rapidly narrowing the revenue gap more quickly than the valuation gap may indicate.<\/p>\n

Whether the market will eventually take notice remains uncertain \u2014 a possibility an IPO, which Zhang suggests is at least three to five years away, would bring to light.<\/p>\n

For now, Zhang asserts his focus is on long-term objectives: one million customers by 2030, $20 billion in annual revenue, and increasing average revenue per customer from about $12,000 to around $20,000. A range of AI-driven autonomous finance products \u2014 systems that not only present data but also execute transactions \u2014 are currently being launched. The premise is that a decade’s worth of financial data across the entire corporate finance spectrum, from revenue collection to treasury management to vendor payments and expenses, has provided a training dataset that cannot be easily replicated by competitors overnight, he suggests.<\/p>\n

Now it is a question of whether all this hard work is sufficient to penetrate Stripe\u2019s market share. At present, it seems the competition remains at a distance. Zhang and Collison were never close, but they maintained a friendly rapport during past merger discussions. Last year, they were both present at Greenoaks Capital\u2019s annual event. They did not interact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

Jack Zhang, at 34 years old and three and a half years into his startup journey, found himself in a meeting with one of Silicon Valley’s top investors. Michael Moritz from Sequoia had welcomed him into his home \u2014 which had, as Zhang remembers, a couple of floors and a view directly facing the Golden Gate Bridge \u2014 to discuss a potential sale.<\/p>\n

Stripe was interested in acquiring Airwallex for $1.2 billion. At that juncture, the Melbourne-based company was generating about $2 million annually. The figures were hard to ignore: a revenue multiple close to 600. Moritz emphasized that Patrick Collison was a once-in-a-generation founder. The acquisition would evolve into something remarkable. Zhang considered this. He spent two weeks wandering San Francisco, feeling agitated and unable to think clearly. Eventually, he agreed.<\/p>\n

He then flew back home, nearly 8,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI deeply contemplated my motivations for building Airwallex,\u201d he mentioned earlier this week during a conversation with this editor from overseas. \u201cHaving been in business for three and a half years, the company was growing exponentially in 2018, and I had only just begun to feel what entrepreneurship was about \u2014 and that’s what I had always dreamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of his three co-founders opposed the deal, which contributed to his decision. However, he pointed to the clearest sign: looking at the whiteboard in his office where the vision remained, still incomplete: to create a financial infrastructure enabling any business to operate globally as though it were local.<\/p>\n

This choice is becoming increasingly prophetic. Airwallex now reports over $1.3 billion in annualized revenue and is expanding at an 85% year-over-year rate. It handles nearly $300 billion in annualized transaction volume, according to him. Achieving this success hasn\u2019t come without challenges \u2014 and Zhang argues that these struggles are fundamental to the journey.<\/p>\n

His conviction extends well beyond mere business tactics. Zhang was raised in Qingdao, a northern Chinese port city, relocating to Melbourne at 15, alone and with limited English, staying with a host family. Following a financial crisis in his family, he undertook four jobs to complete a computer science degree at the University of Melbourne, as reported by the Australian Financial Review \u2014 bartending, dishwashing, working overnight shifts at a gas station, and fruit-picking during school breaks, which he has described as the toughest job he ever held. Later, he spent years developing trading algorithms at an Australian investment bank, a well-paid position that never felt entirely \u201cfulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Prior to Airwallex, he initiated around 10 business ventures: a magazine at 14, a real estate firm, import-export activities transferring wine and olive oil from Australia to Asia, textiles in reverse, and a burger franchise.<\/p>\n

While managing a coffee shop in Melbourne, the concept for Airwallex emerged. As he tried to pay coffee bean suppliers in Brazil, Indonesia, and Guatemala, his co-founder Max Li repeatedly saw payments vanish within correspondent banking systems \u2014 flagged and halted by American banks enforcing OFAC sanctions, sometimes returning weeks after being sent. \u201cThis compelled me to delve into how correspondent banking operates,\u201d Zhang stated, \u201cthe functioning of SWIFT, and how we could develop our own global money movement network.\u201d<\/p>\n

The core concept remains but has expanded significantly. Airwallex now possesses nearly 90 financial licenses across 50 markets. Zhang estimates Stripe holds perhaps half as many. Acquiring those licenses has been highly labor-intensive \u2014 the process in Japan alone took seven years. In some emerging markets, it was necessary to purchase shell companies with licenses no longer issued by central banks and completely rebuild the underlying technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t simply vibe-code an integration with Mexico\u2019s central bank,\u201d Zhang explained. \u201cWe require a secure facility \u2014 access to the central bank integration necessitates a biometric scan just to enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rationale for obtaining these licenses goes beyond superficial regulatory compliance. In Japan, for example, Stripe and Square can process payments, but they must instantaneously transfer funds to the merchant’s account. Airwallex, thanks to its fund transfer operator license, is able to retain those funds within its ecosystem. This allows a customer to generate bank accounts, issue cards, and spend money without leaving the platform.<\/p>\n

The foreign exchange economics alone are substantial: a U.S. seller settling transactions in Australian dollars avoids the 2% to 3% conversion fee typically charged by processors like Stripe when moving money back to U.S. dollars \u2014 and can utilize those local balances to pay local suppliers, manage payroll, and cover digital marketing costs, all at interbank rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou no longer operate merely as a U.S. entity,\u201d Zhang noted. \u201cYou function like a company with global entities, but without the necessity of physically establishing those entities.\u201d<\/p>\n

This deliberate slow growth was intentional, and Zhang frequently returns to a principle he refers to as the \u201cpath of maximum resistance.\u201d Each license, each bank integration, every local payment rail that Airwallex painstakingly assembled has erected a barrier against competition. \u201cIt took us six and a half years to hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue,\u201d Zhang stated. \u201cThen, it took just over three years to reach a billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The competitive reasoning, in his perspective, hinges on a fundamental understanding of owning infrastructure versus depending on someone else’s. If you lack control over the full payment process and something goes awry, you can\u2019t access the underlying data to clarify it for your customer. You cannot seamlessly introduce new products on top of another’s system. \u201cBuilding on existing infrastructure,\u201d he remarked, \u201cis simply not scalable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, Airwallex and Stripe have operated in largely distinct regions, targeting different customers. That is evolving. As Stripe ventures deeper into international territories, and as Airwallex makes substantive advancements into the U.S. market, the overlap is increasing.<\/p>\n

Previously, the main purchasers of Airwallex were the CFO offices in Australia and Southeast Asia, where it has gained a solid foothold \u2014 finance directors, treasury teams \u2014 distinguishing it from Stripe, whose customer acquisition has largely stemmed from U.S. developers selecting a default option for a new business. Over 90% of Airwallex’s clients first engage with a business account product, leading to utilizing payments and spend management subsequently. More than half are using multiple products, says Zhang.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, there are obstacles Zhang does not underestimate. The most significant might be Stripe’s status as Silicon Valley’s darling, its privately held shares creating millionaires throughout the tech scene. Additionally, a brand gap persists. Airwallex must embed itself within the mindset of engineers and developers \u2014 not merely finance teams \u2014 so that founders instinctively turn to it. \u201cOur brand simply isn’t there yet,\u201d he remarked. \u201cIt\u2019s a tougher competition to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

This competitive landscape is closely monitored from various perspectives. Sequoia supported Airwallex early on \u2014 although the deal was brokered through Sequoia Capital China, which has since rebranded as Hongshan \u2014 and continues to be one of the company\u2019s largest investors. The firm Greenoaks Capital also has stakes in both companies.<\/p>\n

Zhang dismissed any notion of discomfort regarding the overlapping investors. According to him, the investors are wagering on a vast market.<\/p>\n

However, this raises the valuation discussion. Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February tender offer \u2014 marking a 74% increase from the previous year \u2014 after processing $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025. Meanwhile, Airwallex received an $8 billion valuation in December, making it worth approximately a twentieth of that. But Zhang contends that Stripe’s payment volume is only about six times Airwallex’s, not 20 times. With 85% annual growth and expected revenue of $2 billion within the next year, Airwallex is rapidly narrowing the revenue gap more quickly than the valuation gap may indicate.<\/p>\n

Whether the market will eventually take notice remains uncertain \u2014 a possibility an IPO, which Zhang suggests is at least three to five years away, would bring to light.<\/p>\n

For now, Zhang asserts his focus is on long-term objectives: one million customers by 2030, $20 billion in annual revenue, and increasing average revenue per customer from about $12,000 to around $20,000. A range of AI-driven autonomous finance products \u2014 systems that not only present data but also execute transactions \u2014 are currently being launched. The premise is that a decade’s worth of financial data across the entire corporate finance spectrum, from revenue collection to treasury management to vendor payments and expenses, has provided a training dataset that cannot be easily replicated by competitors overnight, he suggests.<\/p>\n

Now it is a question of whether all this hard work is sufficient to penetrate Stripe\u2019s market share. At present, it seems the competition remains at a distance. Zhang and Collison were never close, but they maintained a friendly rapport during past merger discussions. Last year, they were both present at Greenoaks Capital\u2019s annual event. They did not interact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3489389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3489388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3489388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3489389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3489388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3489388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techingeek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3489388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}