Airwallex Shifts Toward Higher-Margin Products

The big change is that Airwallex is making more money from being inside a customer’s daily money workflow, not just from taking a small spread when money crosses borders. Cross border FX was a good wedge, but cards, domestic payments, acquiring, treasury accounts, and embedded APIs let Airwallex earn on more actions per customer and keep more gross profit on each one. That is why gross profit growth sped up even as the business got larger.1 2 3

• The mix shift is visible in the numbers. By March 2025, over 50% of gross profit came from white label corporate cards and payments products, and gross profit growth accelerated to 78% year over year from 40% the year before.1
• These products are stickier because they sit deeper in customer operations. A platform like Deel or Brex can use Airwallex to issue local cards, collect in local currency, reimburse employees, and move funds through APIs, which creates more revenue lines than a one off FX transfer.1 2
• This also explains why Airwallex looks different from Wise and Payoneer. Those companies remain strongest in narrower lanes like transparent FX remittances and marketplace or freelancer payouts, while Airwallex is bundling accounts, cards, acceptance, treasury, and embedded finance into one stack.2 4

The next leg is likely more margin expansion through software like payments orchestration, card issuing, and embedded finance, especially in the Americas and EMEA. As more volume moves onto products Airwallex controls end to end, the company should look less like a low spread money mover and more like a full financial operating system for global businesses.1 2 3