Founders in Arms
00:10:01 · Immad Akhund
[00:10:01] S1: Yeah. I mean, I think there's definitely opportunity to to work together, and there's some similarities. But I... Yeah. I don't think there's that many people that, like, are choosing either Mercury or Airwallex as, like, a competitive thing, either they're using both of us because they have different needs for both of us or are they using just one. I think one thing that's kind of interesting outside The US, if you look at these fintechs, most of them most of the big fintechs outside The U. S. Started with FX and Global Payments as their initial wedge, whether it's Airwallex or Wise or Revolut. In The U. S, like most businesses in The U. S. Don't or are not forced to have international markets from like early on, whereas in Europe at least, and I'm not as familiar with APAC, but maybe also true for APAC and Australia, Most businesses, even when they're like relatively small, end up wanting to do things internationally. So you have this like kind of global banking need very early on, where before the likes of Airwallex, it was just kind of a pain in the ass to use banks and get ripped off on like three percent FX fees. And it's just like really hard to make those payments. So yeah, do you think do you kind of view it like that, Jack? That like there was this kind of huge opportunity and wedge and now you've expanded from that? Or is that kind of like incorrect statement? And if you think about these kind of wedges, like do you think there's other wedges for fintechs? Or do you think like we've really explored the most obvious ones?
00:11:39 · Jack Zhang
[00:11:39] S0: We definitely started with FX, international payments, wedge to expand, you know, everywhere in APAC and Europe and then even Canada and Latin America. Right? So I think US is very unique as, you know, US dollar is the dominant currency of the world, and most of The US business doesn't transact in sort of multicurrency by default. And they apparently losing a lot of money from that. Right? You know, for example, if you're using Stripe to process payments in Europe as a US merchant and, you know, Stripe will charge you two, 3% on FX and settle US dollar. And if you have staff in Europe and and UK and you have to converting the money to pay them in local currency again. But US business is generally just, like, insensitive to those high FX costs because they've been just get used to operating in that, you know, US dollar denominated currency and US dollar denominated economy. But if you're looking at the history, right, so the rise of the global businesses is is actually the the biggest sort of trend in in the last thirty, forty years. Right? So if you look at the market cap of United States, that's double of the GDP of The US, which is about $30,000,000,000,000. Right? The the the the the market cap of The US is about $6,070,000,000,000,000 dollars. And one of the key reasons the market cap is bigger than the GDP of The US because a lot of these companies operating in The US are global businesses. Right? So in the last twenty to thirty years, that percentage of, like, in terms of, like, US businesses that generate revenue outside of The US. Right? So that's in about 40 to 50% today, and that's more than doubled of twenty to thirty years ago. It's like a sub 20%. So the the the need of a platform in The US to help these entrepreneurs in The US to grow globally to optimizing that financial operation to give them efficiency, to help them to expand the market, everywhere, essentially gonna... Driving the the GDP grow... I mean, to driving the the the The US economy. Right? So because close to half the the The US business is generating that revenue elsewhere. And as the rise of the Internet and now AI, the the global economy just more integrated. And, you know, regardless of the the the political perspective... But, you know, from an entrepreneur point of view, every single AR businesses are having customer globally.
00:14:06 · Jack Zhang, Immad Akhund
You want it to be, you know, global from day one, and you wanted to have a platform to help you to optimizing both from, you know, growth and also from efficiency and cost perspective. And that's exactly, you know, what Airwallet's trying to do, is to help the best entrepreneurs and the best company in The US to go global. [00:14:27] S1: I guess, recently, there was a controversy where Keith Robor... I don't know. It was after this fundraiser you did, but he kinda came in on on X, and he he said, like, hey. This company is like... Well, Airwallex is like a, well, I can't remember his exact phrasing, but roughly saying that you you guys are a Chinese company and you're stealing data from businesses. Yeah. I guess, like, what was the rough accusation? I didn't... I don't quite get why that makes sense, but also, like, you know, what was your response to that? And how did you feel after, like, Keith said that?
00:15:01 · Jack Zhang
[00:15:01] S0: I think the accusation is basically completely, like, fabricated without any evidence. And I think the term, like, that, you know, are quite popular in The US called sort of Singapore Wash. You know, a bunch of, like, Chinese companies, like, you know, I think one of the companies like Amanas recently acquired by by Meta. That's... And the the Chinese company that started in China become quite successful, then basically relocated to to Singapore, then started... Then got... Then become very successful, you know, globally. Airwallis is like a completely different story, factual basis. Right? So I moved to Australia. I moved to Canada when I was 14, moved to Australia when I was 15. I started the business there, went to college there, and my co founders, all my friends from the college, you know, we're all Australian and New Zealand citizen. And we, you know, essentially founded the business in Australia, and the the the headquarter was Melbourne for for many years, right, before we we moved to Singapore, now San Francisco. And that... Because of the the sensitivity of the data that we we are dealing with, we always keep kind of, you know, a pretty important eye on it and then have pretty good policies and sort of protocols in place to... You know, both from a data residency and data security point of view. Right? So... And and we are regulated in, you know, more than 50 markets around the world and including 48 states in The United States. Right?
00:16:29 · Immad Akhund
[00:16:29] S1: How did you how did you feel when this tweet came out? Like, was it like you were like, oh, this is bullshit, and you just ignored it? Or was it like was it kind of an emotional journey for you seeing that?
00:16:42 · Jack Zhang
[00:16:42] S0: I think, you know, initially, like, was kind of just like a one guy, you know, who cares type of scenario. But then, like, all my customers start sort of telling me to post something publicly and... Which which I kinda did. And, you know, as a sort of founder, obviously, that you really wanna focus on your energy and time to to, you know, achieving your mission to build a business. And and even like you... When you come to competition, you wanna kinda competing with, you know, the the... In a a in a sort of... With your product with with, you know, end of day, we always believe in the best product wins. And, you know, we we building an enduring brand that, you know, competing with with folks fairly, right? So I think there's definitely an element of feel angry about the situation because, you know, as an entrepreneur that... From Australia that, you know, we overthink we're allies of of The US, and we we are here to help US company to to win globally. And that's more important than anything else. Right? So we we we gonna deploy a billion dollar in The US over the next three years to build out our business here and then massive investment in in The US economy as well. So it's kind of almost like, you know, like folks that using certain narrative that very trendy in the political thing to attacking, you know, a a a competitor or portfolio company. So that that is just, like, pretty out of my, you know, radar from from from the... You know, since I started the business for the last decade. The tactics the tactics of people using are just insane nowadays.