What Southeast Asian Founders Can Learn from Airwallex
Jack Zhang turned a coffee shop headache into a $1B fintech. Here's what SEA founders can learn from the playbook he wrote—and how to adapt it for our fragmented reality.
The Path Airwallex Cleared: What It Looks Like When Someone Gets It Right
From $0 to $1B ARR—Built Without the Safety Net
- 2015: Jack and Max are bleeding money on coffee supply imports—sick of hidden FX fees and opaque cross-border payments, they decide to fix it themselves.
- The team: University friends sleeping in a 10-square-meter office, not ex-FAANG hires with golden parachutes.
- The bet: When Stripe came calling with a $1B acquisition offer, Airwallex said no and doubled down on building the long game.
If you're building in Southeast Asia, this is the best inspiration and map. Airwallex proved that infrastructure-first, multi-market fintech can be built outside Silicon Valley. Now here's how to adapt their lessons to SEA's unique terrain.
4 Lessons SEA Founders Should Borrow (and Adapt)
1. Build Infrastructure, Not Just Features—But Know Why It's Harder Here
Airwallex rebuilt payment rails from scratch: proprietary tech, direct licenses, local clearing connections across 150+ countries. Grueling? Absolutely. But that's how you build a moat competitors can't cross.
The SEA difference: While Stripe could scale in a unified US market with standard banking rails, SEA throws 11 countries, 8 currencies, and wildly different KYC/AML regimes at you before lunch. Airwallex's multi-license approach isn't a nice-to-have here—it's table stakes.
Your move: Building the pipes earns you the margin and the moat. Surface-level integrations make you a temporary convenience. Own the rails or plan to be replaced.
2. "Born Global" Isn't a Vision Statement—It's Your Day One Reality
American and Chinese fintechs get to master massive home markets before expanding. SEA startups? You're regional by necessity from the jump. Airwallex sprinted for banking and payment licenses across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously—not as a flex, but because that's what surviving fragmentation requires.
Your move: Multi-market licensing isn't phase 2. It's part of your MVP. The founders who treat regulatory strategy as product strategy are the ones who'll still be here in five years.
3. Chase ARR, Not Just Growth That Graphs Well (User Count)
Airwallex hit cash-flow positive by year eight, doubled ARR in a single year, and prioritized contracts that stick over vanity metrics. In today's funding climate, VCs care about renewal rates and expansion revenue—not how fast you can juice your user count.
Your move: Prioritize deals that compound. The right revenue metric keeps you investable even when capital markets freeze.
4. Hire for Hunger Over Pedigree
Jack personally hired the first 100 people—slowed him down but built unshakeable alignment. The "banking experts" from legacy institutions? Many couldn't adapt to builder culture and churned out fast.
The SEA edge: Curiosity and adaptability beat brand-name resumes when you're navigating uncharted regulatory waters and rapidly changing markets.
Your move: Test for learning speed and resilience in interviews. Skills can be taught. The ability to thrive in chaos can't.
The Uncomfortable Truth: You Probably Won't Get Airwallex's Runway
Most SEA startups won't have a decade and $1.2B+ in capital to brute-force a regulatory moat. So how do you front-load defensibility without the war chest?
Find thin wedges: Own one underserved corridor or regulatory niche deeply—remittances between two specific countries, embedded finance for a vertical—then expand from strength.
Turn compliance into product: Don't just survive regulation—automate it, standardize it, and potentially turn your compliance infrastructure into SaaS revenue for others facing the same pain.
What to Do This Week
Don't just build an app—map your regulatory path.
Before you finish your pitch deck:
- Draft your licensing strategy across your target markets
- Book a call with a regulator or join an industry working group
- Shadow a compliance lead at a company one stage ahead of you
Airwallex didn't wait for perfect conditions. They built through regulatory hell, embraced regional chaos, and made themselves impossible to dislodge. They proved the path exists.
For SEA's next wave of fintech builders: the rails are there to be built. The playbook is there to be adapted. The question is whether you're ready to put in the years.
