Airwallex expands from cross-border payments to autonomous finance—though president Lucy Liu says it’s still ‘not the best time’ for an IPO

Airwallex president Lucy Liu invokes a car metaphor to describe one of her company’s newest products. “It’s like assisted driving, like you have in a Tesla,” she says to describe T:0, an automated bookkeeping system that can run a company’s entire financial department on its own. “You still have someone in the driver’s seat, but the car really drives itself.”

T:0 is part of a broader pivot for Airwallex, which got its start in Australia, and has emerged as a major global player in fintech and payments. Like platforms like Wise and Revolut, its business first grew alongside traditional industries that rely on cross-border payments, such as e-commerce, gaming, and online travel. But as AI  changes how companies approach aspects of their business, including subscriptions and payment models, fintech firms like Airwallex are changing too.

In late June, Airwallex raised $320 million in a Series H funding round led by Addition, a returning investor, alongside Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Amex Ventures, and Washington University in St. Louis. The round valued Airwallex at $11 billion, up from the $8 billio...