Founded in a Melbourne café in 2015, Airwallex has grown from a local startup into a global financial platform. Airwallex is deeply connected to its Australian heritage, extending the Aussie success story to Singapore and San Francisco where it has now established dual headquarters. This partnership, based in Airwallex’s founding city of Melbourne, represents the company’s first major sports sponsorship in Australia.
To mark the launch, Essendon and Airwallex took over Industry Beans in Fitzroy this morning, recreating the founding inspiration of the original Tukk & Co café, where the Airwallex founders first envisioned the platform.
Updated Jan 22, 2026 – 6.59pm, first published at 4.05pm
The country’s financial crimes agency is investigating Airwallex and has forced it to engage a special auditor after becoming concerned that the money transfer platform was being used to fund child sexual abuse.
The intervention of AUSTRAC, which said it was concerned that the company was not properly monitoring payments it was processing.
“We are proud to join Airwallex’s elite global sports portfolio alongside the likes of McLaren Racing, Arsenal FC, the Blues and the San Francisco Giants. We look forward to connecting with these global teams to share insights that benefit our players, coaches, and staff.”
I hope that’s the rugby team and not… you know who.
In all serious though - they are a financial company, mostly aimed at business use - that facilitate cross border payments. This technology, like traditional finance, will be unfortunately utilised by heinous people for heinous purposes. As long as their work with AUSTRAC and follow regulations, it is a nil issue.
