“ We approached the problem in a very different way to incumbents that have a bricks-and-mortar presence ”
— James Butland , VP of Global Banking , Airwallex
it ,” he continues . “ People haven ’ t been using high street banks or shops , so there is a real migration to managing finances virtually , and the pace we ’ ve seen it change is incredible . Businesses still need to use payments services , and to manage payments internationally , so our sector specifically actually looks very healthy – we ’ ve actually seen a huge rise in companies going digital and looking at new ways of making savings and improving efficiency .” To aid this , Butland adds , Airwallex waived FX fees for three months for its customers from March , which proved a timely intervention .
The economic landscape has undoubtedly proved challenging . However , despite this , Airwallex has continued its growth strategy including the closing of its largest investment round to date and raising $ 160mn in Series D funding . Butland explains : “ The round was completed at the height of COVID , which was of course a challenging time , but it demonstrates that the fundamentals of our business haven ’ t really changed , we were still serving our core markets and our customers were still using the platform so we were able to show investors that we were a resilient business . If you look at fintech investment at the moment , deals are still happening , but there ’ s definitely questions over what that recovery will look like .”
33 fintechmagazine . com