Singapore remains bright spot for Airwallex as revenue doubles in 2025: Apac GM

[SINGAPORE] Airwallex still sees Singapore as a bright spot in its Asia-Pacific market, as revenue more than doubled, rising 107 per cent in 2025.

This is the second year the payments company has experienced a doubling in revenue growth in this market, said Arnold Chan, general manager, Apac excluding China, at Airwallex.

“The (Singapore) business has been growing really fast from both a transaction volume and a headcount perspective,” Chan told The Business Times.

Transaction volume has grown 93 per cent, while headcount in Singapore has gone up 62 per cent in 2025.

The increase in headcount comes as Singapore was designated one of two global headquarters for Airwallex in Dec 2025 along with San Francisco. Hiring has been across the board from product engineering to commercial marketing.

There are plans to grow Singapore headcount by 70 per cent by the end of 2026, as Airwallex looks to tap small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as they look to grow beyond Singapore.

A survey commissioned by Airwallex, which polled 250 SME decision makers in Singapore, showed that SMEs are now prioritising international expansion. Most are targeting overseas growth in the next seven to 18 months, targeting South-east Asia as the top region and Malaysia as the top market.

Compared to the 2025 survey, where 87 per cent of SME respondents had an overseas expansion timeline of seven to 18 months, 96 per cent of respondents indicated similar plans in 2026.

In the region, Airwallex has done three acquisitions, payments companies CTIN Pay in Vietnam in Mar 2025, PT Skye Sab in Indonesia in Dec 2025 and Paynuri in South Korea in Jan 2026.

Airwallex currently has over 80 licences across the globe, and has built out solutions across the payment chain for SMES. From payment processing to treasury management to accounting, the payments company has a product for every customer.

“We’re well positioned to get the licences in these countries so when Singapore merchants need to sell to these countries, we have the licence to support them growing faster,” said Chan.

In sectoral terms, the travel segment is a bright spot for Airwallex as the world sought to travel after Covid. The companies in the travel segment have to deal with foreign exchange conversions, and Airwallex has secured a number of travel agency customers in Singapore as a result.

Referring to the Singapore’s twice yearly travel fair, The NATAS Fair, Chan said that most of the exhibitors are Airwallex’s clients.

“We help them collect payments, but we also help them pay their suppliers using virtual cards,” said Chan.

The focus for Chan will be in deepening penetration in existing and new markets in APAC. Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea will have more people on the ground as the company seeks to grow its nascent business there.

There are also plans to expand the number of licences Airwallex has in the region, where it operates in Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and China. Chan will also focus on expanding the products for customers, integrating more software on top of the payment infrastructure for customers to use.

The growth in software product is borne out of what customers demand from Airwallex, with the belief in the future of agentic commerce. The company is building AI software to help financial officers manage payments and finances.

“AI adoption is one thing that we look forward to, we have our own AI assistant that customers can interact with to deal with their finances,” he added.