Event Recap | Airwallex and Linear Capital Successfully Co-Host Sharing Session for Global Expansion Companies

Photo | Group photo from the event

Airwallex is a leading global cross-border payments and financial platform, providing modern businesses with solutions for global payments, financial management, expense control, and embedded finance. By leveraging its proprietary global financial infrastructure, Airwallex eliminates friction and inefficiencies in cross-border payments and financial operations, empowering businesses of all sizes to seize new global opportunities and grow without boundaries. Founded in Melbourne, Airwallex operates across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America, serving over 100,000 global clients including well-known enterprises such as SHEIN, Qantas, Brex, Rippling, and Navan.

On the afternoon of November 29, 2024, Airwallex partnered with Linear Capital to host a sharing session for Chinese companies expanding overseas in Hangzhou. Airwallex speakers covered topics ranging from global cross-border payment systems and merchant acquisition strategies to risk management and compliance, offering Linear Capital's portfolio companies insights into global payment solutions for Chinese businesses going global, as well as answering questions on overseas growth. More than 20 Linear-backed companies participated online and offline. After the presentations, speakers engaged in in-depth discussions and exchanges with attendees.

Part.01

Introduction to the Airwallex Venture Partnerships Program

Speaker: Chloe Xue — Head of Airwallex Venture Partnerships

Chloe Xue introduced the Airwallex Venture Partnerships Program at this sharing session. Starting December 2024, Airwallex officially launched this program, designed to collaborate with top-tier investment firms to help their portfolio companies accelerate global business growth. Through this innovative partnership, Airwallex provides partner companies with a suite of customized services:

1. Preferred pricing across all products: Enjoy special discounts on Airwallex's full product suite, reducing cross-border financial costs and improving capital liquidity.

2. Dedicated service team: Portfolio companies receive support from a dedicated team of Airwallex internal experts, ensuring efficient and seamless business operations.

3. Resource-sharing platform: Access shared resources within the ecosystem to expand commercial opportunities and accelerate business development.

4. Founder community: Join a community of entrepreneurs to exchange experiences with industry leaders and gain valuable market insights.

Photo | Chloe Xue presenting

Part.02

Designing Global Cross-Border Payments for Different Stages of Overseas Expansion

Speaker: Jing Zhong — Head of Key Accounts, Airwallex China

Jing Zhong, Head of Key Accounts at Airwallex China, focused her presentation on global cross-border payment solutions for companies at different stages of overseas expansion, with an emphasis on helping Chinese businesses reduce costs, improve efficiency, and mitigate risks in global markets.

Jing Zhong began by highlighting the importance of "compliance, cost savings, and time savings": companies going global must ensure regulatory compliance to avoid financial losses or business disruptions from policy issues; optimize payment processes to reduce hidden costs such as foreign exchange losses, transaction fees, and chargeback rates; and improve capital turnover efficiency by shortening settlement cycles (from T+7 to T+3 or T+5).

She then analyzed three stages of Chinese companies' overseas expansion:

1. Early stage: Building brand awareness through traditional channels such as trade shows.

2. Growth stage: Selling online through cross-border e-commerce platforms (e.g., Amazon, Walmart).

3. Mature stage: Developing branded independent websites, proprietary sites, and apps to enhance brand value and customer retention.

Jing Zhong noted that payment experience and localization strategies are critical to improving conversion rates. Consumer payment preferences vary significantly by region: North America favors card payments and digital wallets (such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal); Asia is dominated by wallet payments (such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, and GrabPay); while Latin America relies more heavily on cash payments and local wallets. Airwallex not only provides card acquiring services but also supports multi-currency collection and local payment method integration, helping businesses meet target market demands, reduce transaction costs, and improve payment success rates.

Photo | Jing Zhong presenting

Part.03

Strategies and Case Studies for Continuously Improving Merchant Acquisition Success Rates

Speaker: Jackie Chen — Head of Solutions, Airwallex China

Jackie Chen, Head of Solutions at Airwallex China, focused his presentation on improving cross-border payment success rates, covering the importance of card payments, optimization strategies, and real-world case studies to provide a comprehensive analysis of key processes and challenges in cross-border payments.

First, Jackie emphasized the global importance of card payments. Despite the rapid growth of digital wallets, card payments remain dominant, accounting for over 60% of market share in regions such as Japan and South Korea. Card payments not only provide chargeback mechanisms that enhance consumer trust but also enable seamless payment experiences and improved repeat purchase rates through card-on-file functionality. Additionally, the four-party model of card payments (issuing bank, card network, acquiring bank, and merchant) creates multiple opportunities for optimizing payment flows.

For optimizing payment success rates, he proposed several strategies. On the frontend, optimizing checkout design (such as displaying card network logos, supporting card-on-file, and auto-filling billing addresses) reduces payment friction for users, while supporting diverse local payment methods meets varying market demands. The risk control engine combines rules-based and model-based approaches, dynamically adjusting 3DS verification and whitelist/blacklist/greylist management to precisely prevent fraud. Smart 3DS and intelligent messaging dynamically adjust verification logic and transaction parameters based on country, issuing bank, and card type preferences, further improving authorization success rates.

Jackie also shared several real-world cases. For example, during a promotional period in Spain, intelligent 3DS verification was used to address issuing bank risk control requirements, improving success rates by 40%; in the UK, adjusting messaging parameters significantly improved card-on-file transaction success rates; and in Saudi Arabia, quickly identifying and resolving issues related to religiously sensitive terms helped win client trust.

Photo | Jackie Chen presenting

📷 Event Photos

Photo | Event venue

Photo | Event check-in desk

📮 Tips

Those interested in the Airwallex Venture Partnerships Program are welcome to contact Airwallex at venturepartnerships@airwallex.com.

About Linear Capital

Linear Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on "frontier technology + industry" — frontier technologies such as data intelligence, digital new infrastructure, next-generation robotics, and technological transformation in traditional sectors (including biomedicine, materials, and energy), applied across vertical industries to dramatically improve industrial efficiency, address pain points, and enable industrial upgrading. Through substantial increases in industrial value, the firm achieves outsized commercial returns. Linear Capital currently manages ten funds with total assets under management of approximately $2 billion.

Our investment stage focuses primarily on leading seed to Series A rounds, with individual investments ranging from $1 million to $10 million (or RMB equivalent).

To date, we have made early-stage investments in over 120 teams, including Horizon Robotics, Kujiale, Sensors Data, Tezign, Rokid, Guandata, and Agile Robots. The combined valuation of Linear Capital's portfolio companies is approximately $20 billion.

In the near term, Linear Capital is working to become the premier "Data Intelligence Technology Fund." Over the long term, we aim to build the most influential "Frontier Technology Application Fund."