(Content in this article is generated by our advertising partners.)
As global markets enter a decade affected by geopolitical fragmentation, regulatory divergence and volatile capital flows, the ability to act with financial clarity in real time is a key advantage. Companies have been increasingly global since day one – hiring talent around the world, sourcing across borders and selling into multiple markets – yet many companies are still clinging to arcane legacy financial systems built for a slower era.
Across all industries, business leaders are rethinking how finance should work. What was once thought of as a back office reporting function is increasingly being replaced as a core execution engine that must move capital, manage risk and provide visibility into markets in real time. Speed, context and intelligence are increasingly determining how effectively companies can move capital, manage risk and act in markets in real time.
Airwallex was created specifically for this new reality.
Global by design: where ambition meets financial friction
For a growing number of businesses, operating in multiple markets is no longer an option – it’s table stakes. But legacy banking systems are not suitable for this environment, creating friction that could slow growth. In a study by AirWallex, 68 percent of Hong Kong companies reported that they struggle with cash-flow management, 53 percent face capital restrictions and 48 percent are affected by FX volatility and rising transaction costs.
Airwallex was created to eliminate this friction. Its platform routes more than 95 percent of transactions through local payments networks in more than 120 countries, with about 94 percent settled in the same day. For businesses, this means a unified, real-time view of global liquidity without the complexity of managing multiple banking relationships, security systems or reconciliation processes.
From Hong Kong to the World: Global Finance in Practice
Airwallex is already supporting businesses moving out of Hong Kong. Slickflow, a provider of omnichannel social commerce software, works with a distributed workforce and global customer base.
As the business expanded internationally, the constraints of the traditional banking model became more apparent. Managing payroll, cross-border payments and customer receipts in different currencies created costs, delays and fragmented visibility, largely driven by forced currency conversions and disconnected settlement processes.
Using Airwallex’s global accounts, foreign exchange, international transfers and corporate cards, SleekFlow consolidates multi-currency collections, payments and day-to-day spending on a single platform, cutting foreign transfer fees by more than 99 percent in the case of SleekFlow, while improving visibility over global cash flows and reducing manual intervention. In this model, finance runs alongside the business rather than disrupting it.
How Airwallex’s AI layer builds on infrastructure to create real value
As businesses integrate financial infrastructure to operate in the markets in real time, attention is shifting to how artificial intelligence can enhance execution. But in global finance, AI’s influence is shaped by the people sitting beneath it. AI cannot replace the hard work of building licensed financial infrastructure on a country-by-country basis – an effort that Airwalls has spent more than a decade undertaking.
“In global finance, artificial intelligence can only be as effective as the infrastructure it sits on,” says Arnold Chan, APAC general manager at Airvelex. “AI is driving down the cost of software across industries, but it is the infrastructure and data that ultimately determine whether it can create real value. By connecting money in, money out and everything in between on a single global system, we give our AI the context it needs to support real financial execution – not just generate insights.”
From insight to execution: what AI enables today
When finance teams have an integrated, real-time view of their global situation, they can move from reactive to more proactive decision making. Increasingly, AI-powered optimization tools are helping businesses analyze payments, FX and operational data in context, improving visibility and decision support across markets.
This enables use cases such as real-time cash position, FX and dynamic risk monitoring as conditions change. Instead of relying on delayed reports, finance teams can react as situations develop.
This approach is already visible on Airwallex’s platform.
Incorporating global finance into how businesses operate
In addition to directly serving finance teams, Airwallex’s platform can also be embedded into other products. SaaS companies, marketplaces, and global enterprises can integrate global accounts, payments, and billing into their offerings, enabling customers to work across borders from day one.
proof at scale
Airwallex’s move reflects the scale of this change. In late 2025, the company raised US$330 million in a Series G round, valuing it at US$8 billion and earmarking the funds for AI hiring and product development. By the end of 2025, its infrastructure is expected to be handling transactions worth more than US$266 billion annually. By designing infrastructure, software, and AI as a single system, AirWallex is moving financial operations away from retrospective reporting toward predictive, automated execution.
“For more than a decade, we have built our own global payments rails, compliance systems and data foundations,” says Chan. “AI is embedded in how platforms operate today. With accounts, payments and workflows running on a global system, our platform’s AI engine has the context to support real tasks, not just provide insights. From a customer perspective, finance becomes a growth enabler, giving businesses the confidence to grow across borders.”