Melbourne, Australia – Recently, the company appointed James Teodorini as head of ANZ to focus on growing Airwallex’s presence in its home region and support local businesses in adopting intelligent and unified payment systems.
In a LinkedIn post, James shared how Airwallex resembles the dictionary definition of a rocket ship with immense opportunities across the ANZ region.
“Across Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland, we have some of the smartest and most resilient people I’ve worked with, all focused on a single aim: offering ANZ businesses the best financial operating system on the planet,” he shared.
Following this, UpTech Media had the opportunity to speak with James, exploring how he plans to further strengthen Airwallex’s presence across the region in his new role.
“In ANZ, our strategy centres on helping businesses scale faster by simplifying how they manage and move money, both domestically and across borders,” James told UpTech Media.
Growing with a local presence
Seamless and integrated payment management frameworks are essential for all businesses of every size across global markets, especially in the ANZ region. James explained how Airwallex aims to expand its presence in the region, beginning with strengthening local roots.
Being homegrown in Melbourne, Airwallex aims to deepen its focus on high-growth ANZ businesses, from scaling tech companies to established enterprises, and working closely with them to remove friction points in existing financial operations.
To achieve this, James plans to begin by strengthening Airwallex’s commercial, customer success, and product teams to deliver personalised fintech solutions for the local needs of ANZ businesses.
“Our goal is to help them move to a single, integrated financial operating system that covers payment acceptance, global accounts, cards and spend management in one place,” James stated.
Part of growing a local and impactful presence across ANZ is also bringing global market accessibility to local businesses through Airwallex’s global network. This creates new opportunities to expand around the world for ANZ businesses, combining global expertise with local presence.
“My focus in ANZ is to maintain the pace and ambition of a high-growth startup while scaling with the discipline of a global financial platform,” James added.
“I want to ensure we create an environment where everyone thrives and plays a part in building the future of global finance.”
Local compliance and global reach
One of the recognisable factors of the payments and fintech industry in ANZ is the fast-evolving and highly competitive, and regulated environment. According to James, this is exactly the type of environment Airwallex is built to thrive in.
“We’re underpinned by one of the most comprehensive regulated infrastructures in the world. With licences across multiple regions and a strong focus on compliance, risk management and security, we can support enterprises that need reliability and scale,” James commented.
In his capacity, James plans to work closely with enterprises of all sizes and sectors to understand existing pain points within their financial operations to prioritise the right solutions and infrastructure investments across the region.
Growth and presence in ANZ not only require an understanding of friction points in financial frameworks, but also focus on adapting an integrated system that allows organisations to scale without compromising employee and customer experience, and maintaining minimal costs.
“I want to help ANZ businesses become global from day one, giving them the tools to accept payments, hold balances, and pay suppliers across the world without adding complexity,” James added.
Airwallex is also planning to work with large enterprises and platforms in the region to highlight how integrated and intelligent financial infrastructures can deliver impactful efficiencies and open new revenue streams.
“If we execute well against these goals, we’ll not only contribute to Airwallex’s global growth, but also play a meaningful role in supporting the next generation of ANZ success stories,” James commented.
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With James leading the ANZ region, Airwallex is set to nurture its roots in the company’s home market by strengthening relationships with local businesses, eliminating friction points in legacy finance operations with integrated systems, and bringing the global stage one step closer.
For James, Airwallex’s growth and support across the region within the fintech industry pays homage to the company’s origins while paving the way to revitalising the global digital finance landscape.
