Airwallex

Here are the most stand-out features of Airwallex:

Global Accounts and Local Currency Payments

This is the unique selling point of Airwallex. It lets businesses open accounts with local bank details (like US ACH, UK sort codes, and EU IBANs) in numerous countries. This means businesses can receive funds from customers, marketplaces, and payment gateways in foreign currencies as if they had a local bank account. It eliminates forced foreign exchange conversions or the need to go through endless hurdles to open local bank accounts in every market you serve or have suppliers in. In specific markets, you can also make local transfers.

Multi-Currency Corporate Cards

Airwallex offers both physical and virtual multi-currency corporate cards (Visa). These cards allow businesses and employees to spend directly from their multi-currency balances with zero international transaction fees. They are integrated with expense management tools to give finance teams real-time control over spending and simplify the reconciliation process. This can be useful for businesses with vendors or contractors in different regions.

Competitive Foreign Exchange (FX) Rates

Airwallex is known for providing highly competitive exchange rates, which are typically very close to the interbank market rate and significantly lower than what most traditional banks charge to businesses.

Global Transfers and Batch Payments

You can make payments to over 200 countries in 60+ currencies. And that too at a cheaper rate and faster speed with Airwallex’s network of local payment rails. You can bypass the slower and more expensive SWIFT network for many transactions (although that’s also available when needed).

The Batch Payments feature enables the processing of thousands of payments to suppliers or employees worldwide in a single upload. That can streamline global accounts payable and payroll.

Payment Links and Online Acceptance

For businesses selling goods or services, Airwallex provides flexible solutions for accepting online payments. Brands can accept local payment methods in countries served, which means customers have more flexibility. Plus, customers may be able to pay in their local currency, with a like-for-like settlement that saves money.

Payment options include checkout (drop-in and hosted), payment plug-ins (for ecommerce platforms), fully customized APIs, and payment links. The no-code payment links can be generated and shared via email or chat to collect funds globally, while plugins and APIs integrate directly with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce to process payments from over 160 different methods.

Airwallex is a cloud-based service, so it can be accessed via browsers from virtually any device. There are also mobile apps for iOS and Android to manage expenses and finances on the go for owners/managers. But given the multi-product nature of the platform and extensive features, it would be better to use it on a desktop via a browser.

There’s no hardware, such as POS systems, offered by Airwallex for payments, as it only focuses on online transactions (both B2B and C2B).

Airwallex has an integrations and API-first architecture, given that it’s a global online payments solution. That’s how it powers many of its features, like FX transactions and employee spending. With these interactions, the platform can be easily integrated into your business’s existing operational workflows.

Currently, the platform offers a range of native connections with popular accounting software like Xero, QuickBooks, and NetSuite, which enables automatic synchronization of transactions and multi-currency bank feeds. It also integrates with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.

Other integrations include Zapier, Workday, ApprovalMax, and HubSpot.

For technology companies, marketplaces, and SaaS providers, Airwallex offers a comprehensive and flexible Core API suite that allows them to programmatically embed its core services, including multi-currency accounts, global payouts, and card issuing, into their own products to create customized financial solutions for their customers. That’s a whole other product (Embedded Finance).

Airwallex is designed to be easy to use because it caters to businesses without dedicated international banking expertise. The platform features an intuitive, unified dashboard that allows users to manage multi-currency accounts, issue corporate cards, and execute international transfers all from a single interface. In fact, the whole thing is based on the idea of unifying what would otherwise be several different platforms that a business would have to sign up for and use.

Onboarding is typically fast. You can open multi-currency accounts digitally without the bureaucratic hurdles of traditional banks. The user interface simplifies complex tasks, such as making batch payments to hundreds of suppliers in different currencies, which can be done with a single file upload.

Working with APIs, especially for embedded finance, can be more technical and obviously requires developer support.