Airwallex
US$5.6Bcross-border payments
Melbourne · founded 2015
Airwallex
Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #13
Australia
AU · AUD @ 0.7139/USD
Cards dominate by value; instant payments have moved from niche to primary rail in under a decade. The RBA's March 2026 Review confirmed a 1 October 2026 ban on card surcharges and a cut in interchange caps to 0.30% wholesale, alongside a new foreign-card interchange cap from April 2027. Contactless is saturated; PayTo is displacing direct debit; CNP fraud remains the headline security problem.
Tab 07
Fintech & disruption
Australia's fintech ecosystem matured after the 2021-22 BNPL peak. Public market comparables (Block/Afterpay, Zip) remain volatile; private capital has rotated toward compliance, SMB financing, and embedded finance. Government support via the Tech Visa program and CDR data-right expansion continues but the venture climate is noticeably cooler than 2021.
Fintech funding · LTM
A$1.1B▼ −22% vs Apr 2024–Mar 2025
AUD · Apr 2025–Mar 2026
Largest unicorn
US$5.6B
Airwallex
Unicorns
Judo Bank
A$1.9BSME lending
Melbourne · founded 2016
Judo Bank
Funding
Largest disclosed rounds · LTM
Rounds shown are the largest disclosed in the last twelve months. Private markets remain opaque — valuations at follow-on are the most reliable signal of investor conviction.
Round size
- AirwallexUS$100M
Series F · 2025-10-15
Emerging categories
Buy Now Pay Later
regulatedA$20.5BAUD/year · 2024
- Afterpay (Block)
- Zip
- Klarna
- Humm
Brought under National Credit Law June 2025; responsible-lending obligations apply.
Source · Worldpay GPR
Stablecoins and tokenized deposits
emerging- ANZ A$DC (institutional pilot)
- NAB AUDN (wholesale pilot)
ASIC guidance 2024 treats retail stablecoin offers as financial products requiring AFSL. Project Acacia is testing tokenized settlement.
- ▌Xero + Airwallex (cross-border payables, 2024)
- ▌Employment Hero + Humanforce (embedded payroll advance)
- ▌Square Australia (embedded lending for sellers)