Jack Zhang, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who had been leading his startup for three and a half years, found himself in a pivotal meeting with Michael Moritz, a prominent investor from Sequoia Capital. Invited to Moritz’s San Francisco residence, which offered stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Zhang was presented with an offer: Stripe intended to acquire Airwallex for $1.2 billion. At that moment, Airwallex was generating approximately $2 million in annualized revenue, making the valuation seem incredibly lucrative. Moritz emphasized that Patrick Collison, Stripe’s founder, was a visionary leader, suggesting the acquisition could lead to extraordinary growth. Zhang spent two weeks in San Francisco grappling with the decision, eventually agreeing to the deal.

Yet, he soon flew back to Australia, nearly 8,000 miles away. Reflecting on the decision, Zhang explained, ‘I had to delve into my core motivations for building Airwallex. I was only three and a half years into the venture, which had grown exponentially in 2018. I had just begun to experience the thrill of entrepreneurship, which is what I had always dreamed of.’

Two of his co-founders opposed the acquisition, which influenced his choice. However, Zhang cited a clearer moment of clarity when he looked at the whiteboard in his office. The unfinished vision remained: to create financial infrastructure enabling businesses to operate globally as if they were local entities.

This decision appears increasingly justified. Airwallex now reports over $1.3 billion in annualized revenue, growing 85% annually, and processes nearly $300 billion in transaction volume. Zhang attributes this success to the deliberate challenges they faced.

Zhang’s journey began in Qingdao, China, and he moved to Melbourne at 15 with minimal English, living with a host family. After his family’s financial struggles, he worked multiple jobs to fund his computer science degree at the University of Melbourne, including bartending, dishwashing, gas station shifts, and farm work. He later worked in trading code development at an Australian investment bank, a role that paid well but lacked personal fulfillment.

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Before founding Airwallex, Zhang launched approximately 10 ventures, including a magazine at 14, a real estate development firm, import-export businesses dealing in wine and olive oil between Australia and Asia, textiles in the opposite direction, and a burger chain.

The concept for Airwallex emerged while Zhang ran a Melbourne coffee shop. When attempting to pay suppliers in Brazil, Indonesia, and Guatemala, co-founder Max Li observed payments vanishing into correspondent banking systems, often flagged or frozen by U.S. intermediary banks enforcing OFAC sanctions. ‘This prompted me to investigate correspondent banking and SWIFT systems to build our own global money movement network,’ Zhang noted.

That vision has scaled significantly. Airwallex now holds nearly 90 financial licenses across 50 markets, far exceeding Stripe’s estimated half. Acquiring these licenses required immense effort; in Japan, it took seven years. In some emerging markets, the company acquired shell companies with outdated licenses and rebuilt their technology from scratch.

‘You can’t just vibe-code an integration with Mexico’s central bank,’ Zhang remarked. ‘Access requires a secure room and biometric scans.’ These licenses are not merely regulatory formalities. In Japan, for example, Stripe and Square must transfer funds immediately to merchants’ bank accounts, whereas Airwallex, holding a fund transfer operator license, retains funds within its ecosystem. This allows customers to issue bank accounts, cards, and spend locally without funds leaving the platform.

The foreign exchange advantages are significant. A U.S. merchant settling transactions in Australian dollars avoids the 2% to 3% conversion fees typically charged by processors like Stripe to move funds back to U.S. dollars. Instead, they can use local balances to pay vendors, manage payroll, and cover digital marketing at interbank rates.

‘You no longer operate like a traditional U.S. company,’ Zhang explained. ‘You function as a global entity without the need to physically establish offices worldwide.’ This strategic approach, which Zhang calls the ‘path of maximum resistance,’ has created competitive barriers. ‘It took us six and a half years to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue,’ Zhang stated. ‘But after that, it took just over three years to hit a billion.’ The competitive logic, in his telling, is clear.