‘This business isn’t for everybody’: Airwallex looks outside the tech industry to bolster workforce

One in four new new staff at the Australian fintech are coming from outside the tech industry.

Airwallex managing director Luke Latham says the “narrative” of an aggressive culture is “not in existence in my experience with the company”.

Airwallex is ramping up its recruitment and one in four of its new recruits are coming from outside the tech industry – as it sets ambitious targets to become a truly global fintech and prepares for a potential public listing.

The Australian payments company, which was founded in a Melbourne cafe seven years ago and is now valued at more than $8.6bn, has been taking on the big banks, releasing a range of “app store-like” products that aims to streamline paying suppliers to speed up overseas transactions.

The company has detailed plans to hire 500 staff after it increased its global workforce to 1400 people across 20 offices in the past year. It has been snapping up talent from “other big businesses” and says 40 per cent of its new hirings this year come from outside the tech industry.

And if recruits from non-traditional backgrounds – for example someone who trained as an architect who now works as a product designer – are included, the tally rockets to 70 per cent.

Airwallex co-founder and chief executive Jack Zhang.

The fight for talent in the tech industry is beginning to heat up again following mass lay-offs across the board earlier this year. Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar said last week the company was focused on “adding and retaining” talent to capitalise on the AI boom after shedding 5 per cent of its workforce in March.

But Airwallex global head of product Shannon Scott said working at the company “isn’t for everyone”. Indeed, there have been reports of an abrasive and aggressive culture.

“I’ve been here getting towards four years now and I think when a company is growing at this rate – you know 120 per cent or more growth every year – it’s just presenting some awesome opportunities to learn,” Ms Scott said.

“I personally wasn’t in the finance space before Airwallex, I was always working in technology. There has been the opportunity to learn so quickly, whether initially with card issuing and then getting more involved in payment acceptance.

Airwallex global head of product Shannon Scott.

“One consistent thread, even in the negative feedback that we’re hearing, is that our people are really strong. We have really great people. This business isn’t for everybody because we are working at a really fast pace. But the right people really get a lot out of working here and really thrive on that.”

Mr Scott said Airwallex was still on a steep growth curve, launching a new Yield product this week which takes advantage of “apathy” from the big banks by allowing businesses to earn higher returns on US dollar balances without needing to open an overseas bank account.

The company has also expanded its presence in Latin America, buying Mexico payments company MexPago last month for an undisclosed sum. It has made a raft of executive appointments in its San Francisco office to bolster its US operations.

“We have several years of that (rapid growth) left. It actually doesn’t mean it will be like volatile and crazy but it does mean that we are steadily rolling out new products,” Mr Scott said.

About 29.1 per cent of new hires have come directly from tech companies so far this year. At the World Economic Forum in January, Airwallex chief executive and co-founder Jack Zhang said he wanted to hire engineering and product specialists who had been sacked and take advantage of the “tsunami of talent” that was out there.

“It’s about making sure we’re finding people who really want to come on this journey with us and feel really excited about being part of that next phase,” Mr Scott said.

Airwallex’s hiring spree comes after fears of a global recession and market turmoil led to widespread lay-offs across the tech industry earlier this year. After a pandemic recruitment splurge, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, laid off 12,000 staff in January – about 6 per cent of its workforce. The company’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, told employees in a letter that the tech giant had hired too quickly.

Mr Scott said the widespread sackings were the result of warehousing talent which is a strategy that Airwallex has steered clear from.

“We want to make sure we’re bringing on the right folks. I think in the past the reason why there have been lay-offs is companies were a little bit too ambitious and while it was a bit of a land grab, the staff – we’ve never really operated that way.

“We’ve always made sure we would maintain the right sort of fit for our business.”

Airwallex’s biggest new hiring was appointing former Milkrun chief operating officer Luke Latham as its managing director for Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Latham who previously served in executive roles at Amazon and Groupon, said he was yet to see signs of an aggressive culture at Airwallex.

“That narrative is not in existence in my experience with the company,” he said.

“The level of energy, the level of optimism, the level of commitment to our cause and the big-picture vision of the company for the next few years, everyone is really bought in.

“More importantly, there is such a high level of attention … around ensuring a really enjoyable workplace experience, really rewarding workplaces where people can come in and do challenging work and build their careers.”