Airwallex: Will this Australian-born fintech IPO in 2026? There were high hopes, but these may have been dashed

Investors speculate about which private companies could IPO and Airwallex has been one of the most commonly mentioned names. The decade-old fintech completed two US$300m funding rounds during 2025 with the latter valuing it at US$8bn (A$12bn).

Although it does not have to disclose its full financials as a private company, the company has indicated that it surpassed US$900m annualised revenue in the middle of last year and US$200bn in annualised transaction volume with the latter figure up 92% in 12 months. Airwallex has also promoted itself as an AI play.

But developments in recent days have poured cold water on the idea.

What are the Best ASX stocks to invest in right now?

Check our buy/sell tips

Overview of Airwallex

Airwallex is a financial technology company that began in Melbourne in 2015 and was co-founded by Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, Xijing Dai and Ki-lok Wong to make cross-border business payments cheaper and easier, especially for smaller businesses.

Over time it grew far beyond that initial idea, building a broader platform for businesses that includes global payments, multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange, expense management and other services, largely delivered through APIs and its own financial infrastructure.

Although it was founded in Australia, the company now has dual global headquarters in San Francisco and Singapore and operates worldwide with hundreds of thousands of customers.

An AI play?

Airwallex has tried to promote itself as an AI player, and it would be fair to say that is. Already, AI helps it accomplish tasks like monitoring patterns, pricing forex efficiently, managing liquidity across currencies and routes.

Looking ahead, there is more that could be done, and probably will be. For instance, Airwallex has hinted at AI copilots that help businesses understand cash flow across currencies, forecast burn, optimise expenses or decide when and how to move money internationally. Instead of just being a payments pipe, Airwallex could become a decision layer that explains why money is moving and what to do next.

There have also been hints that it could help with its regulatory compliance and reporting systems.

An IPO candidate?

Now, Airwallex executives have never come out and stated that the company aspires to list, but neither has it publicly denied these rumours which it could have easily. We mentioned it raised US$300m twice on 2025 and the second of these deals helped it buy South Korean company Paynuri to enter that market.

And it has so many major investors including venture capitalists Square Peg, Blackbird and AirTree, China’s Tencent, super funds including Hostplus and even the venture capital funds of Salesforce and Visa.

Surely at least some want to realise a return on at least some of their investment and selling to retail investors is a good way to do it because they are less likely to consider that they’re buying from venture capitalists and why they are selling if they saw further upside.

But whether those plans existed or not, or how far advanced they were, a listing seems unlikely. And in fact, the developments in recent days will cause a headache for the company just from an operational perspective.

An AUSTRAC investigation

AUSTRAC ‘ordered the appointment of an external auditor to assess whether payment platform, Airwallex Designated Business Group (Airwallex DBG), is meeting its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations, following concerns about potential non-compliance’.

“As a global payment platform that facilitates the transfer of funds to multiple jurisdictions, AUSTRAC is concerned with Airwallex’s transaction monitoring program has not been attuned to the full range of risks it faces and that the company hasn’t demonstrated an acceptable understanding of who its customers are and what reporting may be required,’ AUSTRAC boss Brendan Thomas said.

The auditor, appointed under section 162 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, will examine whether the business is complying with key AML/CTF requirements including:

• maintaining an AML/CTF program and complying with that program
• operating an ongoing customer due diligence program
• meeting suspicious matter reporting obligations.

We know Airwallex has been very critical of any coverage not positive (at least those that use leaked documents) so we feel the need to say, that was all AUSTRAC’s words, not ours.

What to expect

This investigation may not find anything. It may only make modest findings and accept certain undertakings by Airwallex such as to do more due diligence. We won’t speculate any more about what could come of the investigation than that.

And Airwallex is by no means the only company under investigation – AUSTRAC is looking at the entire payments sector and whether or not certain customers that would be flagged by the big banks are being flagged by non-bank payment providers.

We also add that Airwallex has issued a public statement stating it believes it has done no wrong,’ We are confident that our AML/CTF compliance program is fit for purpose and necessary controls are in place that adequately address all areas of risks facing our business.’

All this said, we do think it is fair to assume this could last some months (specifically, the auditor needs to report in 180 days, so at least 6 months). And this will concern many investors in the company until/unless this is resolved.

And so, don’t expect an IPO for at least 6 months, and we’d be surprised to see even another private funding round. Of course, it is all between AUSTRAC and Airwallex now.