Airwallex Hits 109% UK Growth, Checkout.com Starts Visa Card Issuing

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Airwallex just closed the first half of 2025 with a 109% revenue increase in its UK division, outpacing even its more established markets, like Singapore and Australia.

With a team of 100+ in London, it’s outgrown its current office. The FinTech is moving to a larger space in Fitzrovia, featuring a sculpture of McLaren F1’s Lando Norris 👀

Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang shared on a LinkedIn post that Q2 brought in +13k new customers globally, marking the company’s strongest quarter yet with 84% YoY growth.

Meanwhile, Checkout.com is ramping up in Europe with a new Visa partnership to launch card issuance, giving merchants access to physical and virtual cards.

According to Checkout.com CEO Guillaume Pousaz, “By harnessing the power of Checkout’s acquiring and issuing, we eliminate the need for pre-funding, enable immediate access to funds, and enhance cash flow management.”

Keep scrolling for more on Checkout.com, Airwallex, and the latest in payments 👇 See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

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INSIGHTS

📊 Advanced Payments & FinTech Report.

Let's dive in👇

NEWS

🇬🇧 Airwallex UK grows 109% YoY, driven by an uplift in the volume and value of deals, outgrows office space, and plans to launch multiple new products. As the company continues to scale its operations and grow its customer base, it is also aggressively expanding its local team, which has increased 35% YoY and is now well over 100 strong.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com and Visa partner to launch Card issuing. Leveraging Visa’s global payment network, Checkout.com will issue physical and virtual cards on behalf of Checkout.com merchants, significantly enhancing capital efficiency by eliminating pre-funding and accelerating cash flow.

🇬🇧 What is Payment Orchestration, and why scaling businesses shouldn’t ignore it? by Solidgate. Companies are turning to simplify integrations across markets, streamline financial reconciliation, improve acceptance rates, cut costs, and boost checkout conversions, making it a critical tool for modern online commerce. Read the full article

🇬🇧 JP Morgan's plans to charge for consumer data access: The forerunner for premium APIs? Moshe Winegarten, Chief Revenue Officer, Ecommpay, believes JP Morgan's decision to start charging FinTech companies for access to customer bank account information represents a uniquely American approach that wouldn't be possible in Europe due to the region’s regulatory framework.

🇬🇧 CellPoint Digital and XanderPay introduce a new standard in hospitality payments. This collaboration enhances CellPoint Digital’s existing platform with XanderPay’s specialized capabilities in remittance and reconciliation, offering hotel brands and property owners a seamless, end-to-end payment solution.

🇲🇽 Technology to be strengthened following money laundering allegations at CIBanco and Intercam. It all began in late June when the U.S. Treasury Department accused them of money laundering and drug trafficking. "This is quite serious; you're talking about the reputation of three Mexican financial institutions. How much of it could have been prevented?" said Karen Arroyo, head of new business for ACI Worldwide in Latin America.

🇺🇸 Wingspan lands $24M to streamline contractor payroll. The funding will be used to accelerate Wingspan Embed's growth and expand the company's AI-driven automation to streamline administrative tasks. Continue reading

🇨🇦 Mastercard and BMO expand Global Money Transfer service to nearly 70 destinations. With the addition of new destinations and currencies, BMO’s Canadian personal banking clients will now be able to reach family and friends in almost 70 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

🇧🇷 Boku has received Payment Institution authorisation from the Central Bank of Brazil, marking a significant milestone in its commitment to local payments and financial inclusion. With this licence, Boku will introduce Pix Automático to global merchants, enabling recurring payments for subscriptions, streaming services, and digital goods.

🇺🇸 Splitit partners with Antom. Through the partnership, Splitit's installment technology will be seamlessly integrated into the checkout experience for merchants using Antom's platform. They will be able to split purchases into monthly payments directly at checkout, using their existing credit cards, with no underwriting or additional fees.

🌍 Damisa launches local payment rails and on/off-ramp services across six GCC markets. Effective immediately, partners can enable instant, frictionless transactions in native GCC currencies, directly through local bank accounts, removing traditional cross-border complexities and banking delays.

🇺🇸 Coinbase begins supporting virtual asset payments and deposits through Samsung Pay, starting in North America, with plans to expand to more countries in the future. Samsung Pay is widely used in the global market along with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

🇬🇧 Klarna receives FCA authorisation, paving the way for cashback and balance features. Klarna balance will allow Brits to hold and manage funds in a Klarna account. Customers will be able to top it up using their debit card, shop with Klarna, receive refunds directly into it, and earn cashback when they make purchases.

🇺🇸 Amex teams with Navan on virtual card security. The partnership is to offer unique virtual card numbers with embedded expense controls for U.S. business and corporate cards. Continue reading

🌍 OpenPayd partners with Kraken to launch instant fiat movement to UK and European users. Through this partnership, OpenPayd’s digital asset infrastructure is integrated to enable users to move money seamlessly through programmable domestic and international transfers as well as virtual IBANs.

🇫🇷 Worldline in talks to sell non-payments unit. The payments processor has entered exclusive talks over selling its digital services business to Magellan Partners in a €410 million deal. In June, the firm's share price cratered after multiple media outlets alleged that it had covered up client fraud to protect revenue.

🇫🇷 Worldline announces a renewed management team to lead its transformation. Madalena Cascais Tomé will assume the role of Head of Financial Services, Anika Grant will join as the new Chief People Officer, and Srikanth Seshadri will be the new Chief Financial Officer. Read more

🇺🇸 Wise listing fight leaves proxy advisers bruised. British FinTech Wise may have won shareholder approval for its move to a US listing this week, but the proxy advisers that supported it could end up as losers. Keep reading

🇪🇺 ECB says U.S.-backed stablecoin use in the EU could weaken its monetary autonomy. If U.S.-backed stablecoins, digital assets that are backed by the dollar, gain traction for use in the EU, the effect could be similar to the impact of the U.S. dollar on developing economies.

🇬🇧 Due launches stablecoin API, extends seed round to $7.3M to empower businesses with Borderless Payments Solution. The additional capital supports the launch of Due’s new API platform, enabling businesses to seamlessly access stablecoin payments as blockchain technology reshapes global finance.

🇺🇸 AI finance app Ramp is valued at $22.5 billion in a funding round. The infusion of new capital will go toward hiring engineers, product experts, and marketing and sales staff who will focus on building and selling Ramp’s AI agents. The startup is best known for its corporate credit card and its expense management system.

GOLDEN NUGGET

🚨 Part 2: 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 — 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 by CellPoint Digital (Travel Payments 101) 👇 Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

In travel, payments don’t just need to go through — they need to go through efficiently.

With high booking volumes, fragmented payment preferences, and thin margins, travel merchants must minimize declines, optimize cost per transaction, and ensure global coverage. That’s where Intelligent Routing comes in.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠?

Intelligent Routing refers to a payment orchestration function that dynamically selects the optimal Payment Service Provider (PSP) or acquirer for each transaction in real time.

Rather than relying on a static processor, travel merchants can:

🔹 Route transactions based on issuer location, BIN, or currency

🔹 Avoid downtime by rerouting to backup PSPs

🔹 Choose providers based on approval rates, cost efficiency, or risk thresholds

🔹 Reduce false declines and retry failed transactions instantly

This level of control enables travel brands to avoid single points of failure and fine-tune their acceptance strategy market by market.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬:

1️⃣ A customer initiates a transaction at checkout

2️⃣ The Payment Orchestration Platform analyzes business rules and real-time conditions

3️⃣ It selects the best-fit PSP (e.g., Adyen, Solidgate, Getnet, or others)

4️⃣ The transaction is routed and submitted to the acquirer

5️⃣ If declined or failed, backup routing paths kick in — automatically

With orchestration, routing becomes programmable, fail-safe, and revenue-driven.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥:

✔️ Ryanair - Europe's Favourite Airline uses routing logic to connect with multiple PSPs (Payplug, Checkout.com...) across Europe, selecting acquirers by local success rates to reduce false declines on debit cards.

✔️ Southwest Airlines leverages provider-specific routing to reduce processing fees and better support regional payment methods like Boleto and PIX.

✔️ Expedia Group balances payment traffic across multiple PSPs (e.g., Stripe, Checkout.com, Adyen, Getnet...) using intelligent failover — reducing downtime risk and improving customer trust during peak season.

These companies aren't just improving infrastructure — they’re using payments as a lever for efficiency, trust, and global scale.

Source: CellPoint Digital

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