Grounds for expansion: Airwallex’s Europe chief bets on London in licence pursuit
As payments giant Airwallex laid out plans to double down on Europe, they turned to a man with experience at a multi-billion dollar deposit holder.
The $8bn cross-border specialist was looking for someone to steer the ship amid expansion plans across Europe but in that endeavour didn’t poach a veteran of Wall Street or the City.
Instead, Airwallex tapped the former US strategy manager of Starbucks – a firm which serves as a ‘shadow bank’ managing up to $2bn in customer funds through gift cards and pre-paid balances.
Christos Chamberlain was brought in as Airwallex’s UK and Europe manager in December, following his post-Starbucks stints at Hellofresh and logistics tech platform Flexport.
“I’m kind of an outsider coming into an industry like this,” Chamberlain tells City AM.
He recalls his time at the coffee giant, where the business tapped into banking manoeuvres in its bid to retain customers: “They created a closed network for their customers that enabled them to sort of keep more customers spending with Starbucks and make it easier for them to spend with Starbucks”.
“I think if I look at what customers are trying to do now – some of the principles are coming into other industries,” he adds.
Airwallex has sights set on UK banking licence
Airwallex’s European ambitions come with a hefty pay cheque – the firm is planning to inject $590m (£436m) into its UK business over the next five years as a launchpad for growth across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
“We are going to invest strategically – we see the need for the team to grow substantially in the UK,” says Chamberlain.
City AM revealed last year Airwallex was set for an “aggressive” hiring spree across London with a new office move after its London team expanded 35 per cent in one year to enter triple digits.
The fintech currently hosts around 200 employees in its London pad – which is donned with a 3D-printed sculpture of Lando Norris in a nod to the firm’s McLaren partnership.
Chamberlain credits the talent on offer in the City as making it the ideal hub for European fintechs.
“London is, has been, will be a strong international hub for fintech and obviously like there’s a strong pool of talent here as a result,” he says.
But the UK strategy goes far beyond headcount expansion with the new European boss looking to expand beyond the current electric money institution (EMI) licence from the City watchdog.
“Banking licences are definitely something that we are looking at,” he says.
“I think in a world where you have a banking license, you can expand a bit the services that you can offer to customers.
“It allows you to do a little bit more with your balance sheet effectively.”
He cites the biggest differentiator between an EMI licence is the ability to be more “flexible” with the balance sheet to provide credit.
But the self-proclaimed fintech outsider acknowledges the pursuit of a licence is no easy process.
Zopa Bank captured its licence in December 2018, but did not fully launch as a bank until June 2020, when it exited the mobilisation stage and fintech juggernaut Revolut just notched 19 months in the transition stage as it moves through the largest mobilisation in British history.
“I don’t think you can, you can say it’s a short-term goal [getting a licence],”
“If you look at, you know, other examples and kind of how long it has taken to get a banking license whether that’s EU or UK – those are not short processes.”
No hope for a London IPO
Airwallex – which was founded and is headquartered in Singapore – notched its $8bn price tag last December after a $330m funding raise.
According to its most recent Companies House filing, in the UK Airwallex notched £17.9m in revenue, whilst profit hit £12.4m.
Despite the enthusiasm for the UK and Europe, the fintech has dismissed hopes for a listing in the City.
Founder Jack Zhang previously told City AM even the tariff-induced volatility of the US “does not change the overall competitive positioning of the US stock market.”
It’s a voice Chamberlain doubles down on: “I think the IPO decision is probably going to be driven by what makes most sense from the most attractive public market perspective.”
The firm launched its San Francisco hub as a dual global HQ last year as it beefed up on plans to expand across the US.
Whilst London and New York will fight over fintech listings in a rivalry that mirrors that of Starbucks and Costa, Chamberlain considers his new world a different competitive landscape.
“In payments and banking you can create something that is truly differentiated for a customer,” he says.
He points to the use of December’s fundraise to beef up the AI capacity: “We’re approaching reduction of manual work for finance teams… we are embedding AI agents into different points in the financial operations”.
It’s this leveraging of modern tech that Chamberlain says will make it easier for employees to submit expenses and finance teams to reconcile that cash.
He adds: “This is something where you can really compete on differentiated values and have a great proposition for customers.”
A few seconds pass as he reflects on the comparison to his prior role and quips: “It’s a little bit more difficult when you’re in coffee and you’re looking at real estate wins.”