Airwallex - the Hong Kong-based cross-border payment service provider that only recently attained "unicorn" status, is eyeing opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The company recently raised $100 million, boosting the startup's value to over $1billion to make it a unicorn.

By cooperating with banks from more than 130 countries and over 50 currencies, Airwallex helps its customers acquire foreign bank accounts so they can more easily receive payments or funds from different countries and regions.

"We see a lot of businesses that want to sell their products in many countries globally, but the financial services haven't really been set up for them to grow those businesses online without physically flying there and doing a bunch of stuff themselves," Jack Zhang, Airwallex co-founder and CEO, told China Daily in an interview.

With a simple "KYC" (know your customer) interaction with the company, customers are creating bank accounts in top currencies and more than 50 currencies instantly, Zhang said.

"For example, we KYC you, you give us all your customer data, we can give you a bank account in US dollars in 1 second so you will have a physical bank account with local bank details, and you can use that bank to receive your payments or use that bank account to pay your suppliers as well," he said.

Airwallex has been providing services to large internet companies in China like JD, Tencent and Ctrip, and the company now is moving to smaller businesses that have the vision to grow.

"So we spend a lot of money to build a team in the Bay Area targeting small and medium-sized companies because that's where 80 percent of the international SMEs are located, so they can use our product to help them grow their businesses," Zhang said.

The company set up its Shenzhen office in late 2018 and hired 30 people in the office. It plans to expand the office to around 100 people this year, making it one of the largest offices the company has globally. The employees there will be responsible mainly for product engineering and customer services for the Bay Area's smaller businesses and internet companies.

The Bay Area will bring more opportunities for Airwallex, and more favorable policies may also be introduced in the area, Zhang said, adding that he believes that eventually, favorable policies that Hong Kong enjoys will be applicable to the entire Bay Area.

Zhang, an Australian Chinese, co-founded the company with four partners in 2015 in Melbourne. The company currently has around 200 employees and has raised $202 million in total. Chinese internet giant Tencent is one of its investors.

He stressed that the entire business model of Airwallex is very creative, and currently there is no one in the world doing exactly the same thing that his company does.

"In the longer term, we have only done about 10 percent of what we want to do," Zhang said, explaining that the company basically moves online a lot of the offline banking, core banking and spot payments, and they have done only a very small portion of those transactions.

Airwallex wants to move online more core banking and payments to a unified global platform, he said, adding that he is very confident of the company's future, as there are currently no major competitors in the field and he is not concerned about any new comers.

As for any companies that want to do what Airwallex is doing, they would have to get a lot of licenses and deal with different banks from different countries, and none of this can be done overnight, Zhang said.

Zhang revealed that the most difficult part for him when creating Airwallex was recruiting the right people.

"Finding the right people is difficult, particularly the first five to 10 people you hire. They will decide the future of your company, and when you hire a wrong person, you also have to let the person go as soon as possible."

He recalled that it took him eight months to fire one senior officer who he hired at the initial stages of creating the company. This senior officer had left his job at an investment bank to join Airwallex, which showed a lot of commitment to the startup, but on the other hand, this person didn't have the right skills for the company.

Zhang also firmly believes that ambitious young people should have the courage to start their own businesses.

A lot of young people may think that they just want to get a secure jobs. But there are no secure job, as so many traditional industries are being disrupted by internet companies, and there are so many things that are changing so fast in a digital economy, he said.

"In terms of starting your own business, I would say, find a problem that is large enough, and you should spend a lot of time working on that, and you will find that the market is huge," Zhang said.

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 04/12/2019 page8)