Airwallex co-founder Lucy Liu will on Thursday unveil a program providing younger Australian synthetic intelligence founders $100,000 in equity-free capital, as the worldwide funds large strikes to deepen its native roots whereas navigating a monetary crimes investigation and a stalled run at a public itemizing.
The initiative, referred to as Latitude 37 and named after Melbourne’s latitude, will again at the least 10 founders aged 25 and underneath annually with money grants, mentorship and immersion journeys to Singapore and San Francisco. Liu will announce this system on the Dawn tech convention at Carriageworks in Sydney, with functions opening in late Might.
The launch comes as greater than $1 billion a day flows by Airwallex’s community. The corporate, valued at $US8 billion ($12 billion) after a late-stage funding spherical in December and dual-headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco, posted $US61 billion in funds quantity within the last quarter of 2025, greater than doubling its quantity from a 12 months earlier. Its largest backers embody Australian enterprise corporations Sq. Peg Capital, Blackbird Ventures and AirTree Ventures, alongside Chinese language web large Tencent.
Airwallex was began in 2015 by chief govt Jack Zhang, Liu and three college mates, after Zhang grew pissed off with the price of paying abroad suppliers for a Melbourne espresso store, Tukk & Co, he ran with co-founder Max Li. The fintech has since constructed a world funds platform that sidesteps the legacy SWIFT system, and counts Qantas, Canva and Tradition Amp amongst greater than 250,000 enterprise clients.
Liu, who leads the corporate’s social impression program, mentioned the deal with under-25s mirrored a spot within the native ecosystem.
“The true category-defining concepts normally come from founders who’re nearer to the start of their journey,” Liu mentioned. “It’s not about excluding skilled founders, it’s extra about addressing a spot, as there are loads much less pathways for younger founders to entry help.”
Liu mentioned practically 40 per cent of Australian early-stage capital was now coming from abroad buyers, a development she described as a stability concern moderately than a categorical downside.
“If most early-stage capital comes from abroad, there’s a danger that decision-making, networks and long-term worth creation shift offshore,” she mentioned. “We must be attempting to maintain as a lot right here if we will.”
The launch lands at a fraught second for one among Australia’s most dear non-public tech firms. In January, monetary crimes regulator AUSTRAC ordered an exterior audit of Airwallex’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program – on the firm’s personal expense – after issues its platform was being utilized by so-called cash mules, accounts of individuals knowingly or unknowingly co-opted to maneuver illicit earnings.
AUSTRAC mentioned it had “affordable grounds to suspect” Airwallex had contravened a number of sections of the Anti-Cash Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. The watchdog’s deputy chief govt Katie Miller mentioned fee platforms had change into a lovely vector for criminals due to their velocity and frictionless onboarding.
“All the issues that make the service engaging to official customers are, sadly, the issues that make it engaging to money-launderers and criminals,” Miller instructed this masthead on the time. “We do see this as a high-risk channel to maneuver illicit funds out and in of Australia.”
The audit is progressing in keeping with the regulator’s timeframes, AUSTRAC has indicated, with the auditor’s report as a result of inform what, if any, additional motion it takes. The report won’t be made public.
Within the months since, Airwallex has employed international PR agency Sefiani, sought to recruit influencers on platforms together with Partnar to amplify Zhang’s “thought management”, and engaged legislation agency Mark O’Brien Authorized to demand the Herald, The Age and The Australian Monetary Evaluate take down 5 articles primarily based on leaked inside paperwork. The articles stay on-line.
Requested for an replace on the audit, Liu declined to remark intimately.
“The AUSTRAC audit is ongoing, so I can’t actually remark, apart from to say that we have now co-operated absolutely with the auditor and regulator,” she mentioned.
The investigation has clouded the corporate’s path to a public market debut. Zhang instructed CNBC in 2024 that Airwallex can be “IPO-ready” inside two years, however walked again that framing on LinkedIn after the AUSTRAC order, writing the corporate “by no means deliberate to do an IPO this 12 months, and even subsequent 12 months”.
Liu echoed that place.
“There isn’t a hard and fast IPO timeline. The main focus is on being IPO prepared moderately than committing to a particular date,” she mentioned.
In early April, Airwallex appointed Reserve Financial institution of Australia director Elana Rubin as chair of a brand new native oversight board, alongside former New Zealand prime minister Sir Invoice English. Liu insisted the appointments weren’t a direct response to AUSTRAC.
“Appointing somebody of Elana’s calibre can be a sign of our enterprise maturing,” she mentioned. “It’s probably not about AUSTRAC. It’s about bettering our governance as we scale.”
Airwallex is formally domiciled within the Cayman Islands and relocated its international headquarters to Singapore in 2023, earlier than designating San Francisco as a second international headquarters in December.
Requested what she would inform a younger founder weighing up whether or not to construct in Australia, given Airwallex’s offshore construction, Liu pushed again on the framing.
“We didn’t ‘depart’ Australia. We’re nonetheless deeply rooted there with a big crew and ongoing funding,” she mentioned. “My trustworthy recommendation to a younger founder is to construct the place you will have the perfect expertise, community and early momentum, and for many individuals that may completely be Australia.”
Latitude 37 builds on greater than $5 million Airwallex has dedicated to the College of Melbourne. Tech Council of Australia interim chief govt Lucinda Longcroft mentioned this system would “speed up rising expertise and strengthen the pipeline of worldwide aggressive firms”.
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David Swan is the know-how editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was beforehand know-how editor for The Australian newspaper.Join through X or electronic mail.
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