A Founder Forged in Hardship
Jack Zhang moved to Australia at 15.
At 16, his family lost everything.
With no financial support, he had to fund his own $24,000 annual high-school tuition.
So he worked three jobs:
- 12-hour days in a lemon factory at 40°C
- Bartending from 4pm to midnight
- Overnight shifts at a petrol station
All while studying computer science.
All while coding every spare moment.
All while refusing to shrink his ambition.
That resilience would later become the backbone of Airwallex.
The Moment the Problem Became the Idea
Years later, running a small café, Jack encountered a problem every global business understands:
Paying suppliers overseas was slow, expensive, and inefficient.
Money took days or weeks to move.
Data moved instantly — so why didn’t money?
“Why does money take days to move when data moves in seconds?”
That question changed everything.
In the café where the frustration was born, Lucy — a regular customer who would become a co-founder — offered Jack $1M for 20% of a company that didn’t even exist yet.
She was 24.
She had never made an investment before.
But she believed in the vision before the world did.
That early conviction would matter more than anyone realised.
The Early Years: Chaos, Crisis & Choosing Conviction Over Cash
Airwallex’s first years looked nothing like a unicorn story.
They looked like a survival test.
- 2016: A signed term sheet dissolved a week later. The company nearly ran out of money.
- 2017: Mastercard and Tencent promised major transaction volume. Less than 1% materialised.
- 2018 — The Decision Most Founders Couldn’t Make: Stripe offered $1.2B for Airwallex. Revenue? $2M. Multiple? 600x. Personal upside for Jack? More than $2B. They said no. Patrick Collison told him: “I’m building Stripe for the next 20, 30, 40 years.” Airwallex realised: they weren’t building to sell. They were building for endurance. 90% of the company voted not to exit. That is culture. That is belief.
- 2020: COVID hit mid-raise. Markets dropped 30%. Revenue fell 40% overnight. The company nearly died — again. And yet, through every crisis, they grew stronger.
This isn’t normal growth.
It’s exponential velocity.
But here’s the irony:
For years, hardly anyone in Australia talked about it.
The Decade the Curve Went Vertical
Then came the acceleration — and it hasn’t stopped since.
From 2021 to 2025:
- Revenue surged from $100M → $1B ARR.
- Annual processing volume hit $235B
- North America & Europe became hyper-growth markets
- Total funding reached $1.4B.
- Their valuation jumped from $6.2B to $8B in just six months
- They outpaced nearly every major fintech globally
The Cost of Staying Humble in a Tall Poppy Culture
Jack later admitted:
“For 10 years, I said nothing publicly… but staying invisible has a cost.”
In Australia, founders often keep their heads down.
They build quietly.
They under-state.
They let results speak for themselves.
But global companies don’t scale in silence.
Silence makes it harder to:
- Recruit the best talent
- Win global customers
- Compete against louder, less capable rivals
Airwallex stepped onto the world stage — loudly — through partnerships with McLaren F1 and Arsenal FC. Not as a flex. As a correction.
Because if Australia won’t tell its innovation stories, someone has to.
The 10 Success Clues That Explain Airwallex’s Rise
This is not just luck or timing.
Airwallex’s ascent repeats the same strategic patterns found in every era-defining company.
Here are the 10 clues embedded in their journey:
- 1. They solved real pain, not hypothetical problems
The idea came from lived frustration — the best source of truth. - 2. They built global-first, not Australian-first
No domestic ceiling. No regulatory borders. A platform designed for international scale from day one. - 3. They created infrastructure before creating visibility
Airwallex prioritised substance over noise — rare in fintech. - 4. They turned regulatory complexity into a competitive moat
Most startups avoid global compliance. Airwallex mastered it — and competitors struggled to follow. - 5. They treated crises as catalysts, not setbacks
Every near-death moment forced reinvention and sharpened execution. - 6. They rejected short-term liquidity for long-term legacy
Turning down a $1.2B acquisition is the ultimate founder conviction. - 7. They attracted people aligned to a 30-year mission
Vision is the strongest recruitment engine. Airwallex had it long before it had global recognition. - 8. They reinvented themselves multiple times
Payments → Banking → Software → AI → Autonomous Finance. Evolution is how the best companies outrun the market. - 9. They partnered with global giants to accelerate, not validate
Mastercard, Tencent, McLaren, Arsenal — these weren't badges. They were multipliers. - 10. They refused to shrink their ambition to fit local expectations
Airwallex didn’t escape tall poppy syndrome — it transcended it. And in doing so, it changed what Australian ambition looks like.
What Airwallex Means for Australia’s Future
Airwallex is more than a fintech success story.
It is proof that Australia can — and does — build global giants.
It is proof that world-class entrepreneurship can come from a 16-year-old immigrant working night shifts in a petrol station.
It is proof that tall poppy syndrome weakens in the face of undeniable execution.
Most of all, it is proof that the next generation of Australian founders should dream much bigger, much earlier, and much louder.
Because if Airwallex is the benchmark for what’s possible…
Then the next decade of Australian innovation is about to be extraordinary.
About the Author: Peter Terrill is the Director & Chief Venture Design Officer of V1 Scale and a thought leader in Success Architecture. Having navigated large-scale corporate environments, he now focuses on building resilient, high-growth digital pipelines. You can follow his personal journey and insights at www.peterterrill.com.
