Airwallex, the Australian payments company valued at $8 billion, is expanding into physical retail with a point-of-sale product that allows businesses to accept in-person payments across multiple countries through a single platform — no local vendor onboarding required.
The move puts Airwallex in direct competition with Stripe, Square, and Adyen across both the digital and physical payments stack, a combination few companies have managed to offer at global scale.
The Infrastructure Advantage
What separates Airwallex from most rivals is the regulatory and banking infrastructure it has spent years assembling. The company holds close to 90 regulatory licenses across roughly 50 markets, with direct connections to local payment networks in over 120 countries. Transactions can be settled in more than 90 currencies.
This matters because competitors like Stripe and Square lack the local banking licenses that allow funds to be held, converted, and deployed within a given market. Airwallex can do all of this without routing money through a third-party intermediary — a structural cost and speed advantage.
The new POS platform ties into this same infrastructure, offering businesses unified reporting and direct integrations into back-office systems alongside their existing online payment operations.
By the Numbers
Airwallex’s growth trajectory makes this expansion credible rather than aspirational. The company currently processes $100 billion in annual payment volume, with annualized revenue of approximately $1.3 billion growing at 85% year-over-year. It serves more than 46,000 businesses in the United States alone.
At that scale, even a modest share of the physical payments market represents a significant revenue opportunity — and an existential competitive concern for incumbents.
Who Feels the Pressure
Stripe faces the most direct challenge. The company has built its reputation on seamless developer-focused payments infrastructure, but has historically been stronger online than in-store. Airwallex’s unified platform targets the exact segment of multinationals that Stripe has been courting.
Square and its parent Block have deep roots in physical retail payments but limited international infrastructure. Businesses operating across multiple countries frequently run separate Square accounts per market — exactly the friction Airwallex is positioning to eliminate.
Adyen, the Dutch payments processor and perhaps the closest competitor in terms of global reach, will likely face the sharpest test. Adyen has long sold a similar unified commerce pitch to enterprise clients; Airwallex is now making a version of that argument at a lower price point with comparable infrastructure.
What Comes Next
The POS launch signals that Airwallex is moving from being a cross-border payments specialist toward becoming a full-stack financial operating system for globally-oriented businesses. Banking services, expense management, and FX tools already sit alongside its payments products.
The broader competitive implications extend beyond Stripe and Square. Established processors including Adyen, Fiserv, and Global Payments have built significant moats around enterprise relationships. Airwallex’s growth rate suggests those moats are more permeable than they once appeared.
Early registration for Airwallex’s POS product is available at airwallex.com.