Airwallex unveils plans for AI-powered CFOs as it eyes $1 trillion market opportunity
The $10bn Australian fintech is set to democratise financial expertise with the launch of an AI-powered ‘digital CFO’ and changing how entrepreneurs and businesses manage their money.
Australian financial technology titan Airwallex has unveiled plans to release a digital chief financial officer bot for its small business customers as it accelerates development of artificial intelligence tools.
Airwallex – which is worth almost $10bn – has also acquired San Francisco-based billing platform OpenPay as it seeks to gain a slice of the global subscription market, forecast to soar to more than $1 trillion by 2030.
Co-founder Lucy Liu announced the acquisition, and an ambitious vision: an AI-powered CFO accessible to every new business. She said this would democratise sophisticated financial tools reserved for large corporations.
“We are constantly evolving the product as we are seeing more of this globalisation and digitalisation, and trying to automate as much as we can along the way,” Ms Liu said.
Airwallex’s aspiration goes beyond simplifying cross-border payments and taking share off the big banks. Ms Liu said the company was aiming to provide a comprehensive suite of products, particularly for businesses that lack dedicated finance functions, and most of Airwallex’s ambition stemmed from frustrations it experienced as it scaled up.
“I was our finance manager back in the early days,” Ms Liu said.
“And the finance function itself is so complicated, and with the tools of an agentic AI, basically, with the autonomy, it can shift from a very manual process to more of a strategic like real time insights.”
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence that can perform tasks semi or fully autonomously with little human oversight.
Airwallex – which Ms Liu founded with four friends in a Melbourne cafe a decade ago – has been leaning heavily into AI.
Co-founder Jack Zhang told staff last month that: “If you’re not integrating Al into your daily workflow, you’re putting your role at risk”.
“We’re entering a new era where AI isn’t optional — it’s foundational. The speed, quality, and impact of what we deliver must reflect the tools now at our fingertips. If you’re not using AI every day to enhance your thinking, automate tasks, or test new ideas — you’re falling behind,” Mr Zhang said.
Ms Liu envisions a future where agentic AI can act as a virtual CFO, guiding startups through the complexities of global operations. This includes everything from establishing entities in different jurisdictions to navigating intricate payment flows and revenue analytics.
“When I was opening bank accounts for Airwallex, I had to fly to every single bank, physically, and do it physically in person,” Ms Liu said.
She said the company solved that in 2018, releasing a product that could enable a customer to open a bank account online.
Ms Liu said the OpenPay acquisition, which Airwallex completed for an undisclosed sum, would allow it to continue to build on that philosophy of simplifying the often arduous process of international expansion for startups.
Ms Liu said it would combine global financial infrastructure with modern subscription management, creating the “first truly global billing platform”, which “lowers costs, increases revenue, and lets businesses scale subscriptions without borders”.
“Previously, you’d start off with a domestic business, and then you go global. Whereas now there’s a lot of tools in SaaS (software as a service) and different software and infrastructure that can allow businesses to be really global from day one,” Ms Liu said.
The AI CFO is still being built, with no immediate launch date. But Ms Liu said it was coming: “I think it’s all very important, and something that can really be helpful for businesses who are just starting off, or are growing at scale.”
Ms Liu lauded the OpenPay engineering team, particularly founder Lance Co Ting Keh, as “smart” and a valuable addition. The integration of OpenPay’s automated billing, payment recovery, and revenue analytics tools will form the bedrock of Airwallex’s enhanced AI capabilities, especially valuable for businesses dealing with recurring revenue models.
Ms Liu said it presented a significant opportunity, underlining the $1 trillion target by 2030. Airwallex aims to capture a significant slice of this pie by offering “built-in usage-based billing that works across borders and currencies” a critical feature for consumption-led businesses in the AI era.
Mr Co Ting Keh previously led engineering for two teams at Google X exploring AI drug discovery and computer vision. He was the second engineer to join Cresta, now a unicorn start-up, building language models for contact centres.
“We started OpenPay to solve the complexity of recurring revenue management. We envisioned a smarter, more intuitive platform that empowers subscription businesses to scale without barriers,” Mr Co Ting Keh said.
“In Airwallex, we found a partner who shares our vision, our DNA and has the global reach to apply our work at scale. We are very proud of what we’ve built and excited for our next chapter as we partner with Airwallex to set a new standard, creating a paradigm shift in global payments.”
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