Airwallex put $1 million into 10 Australian AI startups through the first cohort of Latitude 37, its equity-free funding program.
Each startup gets $100k, no strings attached. They also get access to Airwallex's customer base (companies moving $287bn in annualized transaction volume), network intros in Singapore and San Francisco, and what amounts to early enterprise validation from a company that reported $1.3bn in annualized revenue as of March 2026.
The cohort spans edtech (Polarbear AI, building exam prep tools for VCE students), travel tech (SeatFinder, aggregating airline seat availability), and robotics. Specific enough to be interesting, diverse enough that this looks like a brand play as much as a strategic bet.
Context: Airwallex raised $320m at an $11bn valuation in June 2026, bringing total funding to $1.8bn. They compete with Stripe, Wise, and Adyen in cross-border payments. More than 90% of their revenue comes from customers using multiple products, which means they know how to sell platform expansion.
For sales teams, here is what matters: fintech infrastructure companies with this kind of scale make terrible early-stage customers (long sales cycles, heavy compliance) but excellent late-stage validators. If you are selling into payments or fintech, Airwallex backing a startup signals potential enterprise traction, not just funding runway.
The program runs annually. Jack Zhang, Airwallex co-founder and CEO, announced it in April. No indication yet whether they will expand the cohort size or geography, but $1m per year is marketing budget, not serious venture deployment.
Worth noting: Airwallex is still hiring aggressively, planning to push global headcount past 2,000 and expand U.S. teams. That usually means active sales hiring, though no specific AE or SDR numbers disclosed. For ANZ sales professionals, they remain one of the larger private tech employers locally, even as they scale globally.