Airwallex Wants a Front-Row Seat to Israel’s Next FinTech Wave
Hey Payments Fanatic!
Airwallex is quietly making a deeper push into one of the world’s most important startup ecosystems: Israel.
The company just appointed Noa Gastfreund to lead its Startups & VC division locally, three years after launching operations in the country.
Israeli startups raised $15.6 billion last year, which shows the market is still producing and scaling global tech companies at a very high pace. And for a company like Airwallex, that matters. A huge number of Israeli startups are built for international growth from day one, especially across AI, SaaS, cybersecurity, and FinTech infrastructure.
What also stood out to me was the profile of the person Airwallex picked to lead the effort.
Before joining Airwallex, Gastfreund led accelerator programs at the 8200 Alumni Association, working closely with early-stage founders on fundraising and international expansion. She also founded the UAE–Israel Tech Zone and later helped FinTech startup UNIPaaS scale embedded finance partnerships.
Airwallex clearly isn’t just hiring a country manager. It’s building relationships directly inside the startup and VC ecosystem itself.
Today's remaining Payments headlines are just below. 👇 See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
HOW PAYMENTS COMPANIES PERFORMED LAST WEEK
📈 From rallies to pullbacks, here’s how listed Payments companies performed last week:
NEWS
🌍 Nordic startups named winners of Mastercard Lighthouse Spring 2026. Mastercard has announced the winners of the leading startup partnership program Mastercard Lighthouse in the Nordics and Baltics, consisting of two parallel classes: FINITIV, for FinTech companies, and MASSIV, for startups in sustainability and social impact tech. Read the winners here
🇲🇽 Aevi and Getnet have launched a global partnership to simplify international expansion for enterprise merchants and ISVs. Starting in Mexico, the collaboration combines payment orchestration with local acquiring capabilities through a single integration model.
🇮🇱 Airwallex has appointed Noa Gastfreund to lead its startups and VC sector in Israel as the FinTech expands its support for the local startup ecosystem. Noa brings a wealth of experience in go-to-market (GTM) strategies and ecosystem leadership. The move coincides with the launch of a new program focused on global payments, FX, and cross-border operations.
🌍 Mellow has launched Contractor Management, powered by Airwallex, to help companies hire, manage, and pay global contractors from a single platform. The solution combines onboarding, compliance, and cross-border payments across 150+ countries. Read on
🇭🇰 PhotonPay has been recognized on the 2026 Global AI 100 list for its innovative use of AI in global payment infrastructure. The company stood out for advancing transaction automation, optimizing fund management, strengthening compliance processes, and implementing intelligent risk control systems, reinforcing its expansion of AI-powered financial services for businesses operating worldwide.
🌍 Masspay expands global payout infrastructure with support for 35+ local fiat funding currencies. Businesses across every major region can now fund their payout accounts in local currency and disburse worldwide from that same balance, in addition to MassPay's existing support for stablecoin and cryptocurrency.
🇧🇹 RedotPay sets up local entity in Bhutan’s GMC for stablecoin payments in partnership with Gelephu Mindfulness City. The company stated its decision to establish a physical presence inside GMC reflects a “compliance-first” operating model, rather than relying solely on offshore or cross-border licensing structures commonly used across the crypto industry.
🇮🇪 What Revolut is saying about Zippay behind closed doors. The FinTech privately raised concerns that Ireland’s new Zippay instant payments platform could give traditional banks a competitive edge, as customers may need accounts with founding banks to access the service.
🇺🇸 US FinTech Payoneer paid $13 million to acquire Irish employment platform Boundless, with an additional $4 million tied to performance milestones. The deal strengthens Payoneer’s global workforce and compliance capabilities across Europe and beyond. Read more
🇿🇦 PayShap moves beyond peer-to-peer payments. The South African platform is expanding beyond P2P transfers into merchant payments, e-commerce and QR transactions, as banks, FinTechs and retailers push to scale instant payments and drive adoption across underserved communities and businesses.
🇺🇸 NEAR Protocol has launched confidential payments on its Intents platform, enabling private cross-chain swaps between NEAR and ETH. The new feature aims to improve transaction privacy and simplify user experience for decentralized multi-chain transfers.
🇺🇸 Acceleron and Banking Circle US partner to help community banks modernize international wire processing, automating inbound payments and reducing manual work. The integration aims to speed settlements, improve data quality, and expand FX capabilities for banks.
🇺🇸 MoonPay Gateway now supports USDH and USDC on Hyperliquid, allowing users to fund positions directly from fiat without bridges, swaps or extra transactions for faster access to trading liquidity. Users can go from fiat to a funded position in a single step using familiar payment methods like cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
GOLDEN NUGGET
Here's an introduction to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬
Behind every card transaction there is a coordinated set of players:
Each with a unique role.
𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐬:
Issuers are banks or financial institutions that provide cards directly to consumers.
► Key Functions:
→ Underwrite and approve new cardholders
→ Furnish credit, debit, or prepaid cards
→ Authorize and clear transactions in real-time
► How They Make Money:
From interchange fees, annual card fees, interest on revolving credit, and FX markups.
► Examples:
Citi, UBS, ING, TD, Deutsche Bank, Chase
𝐀𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐬
Acquirers are responsible for enabling businesses to accept card payments.
► Key Functions:
→ Set up and manage merchant accounts
→ Process card transactions and settle funds to merchants
→ Manage chargebacks and fraud risk
► How They Make Money:
Through processing fees, gateway charges, and often value-added services (fraud protection, analytics)
► Examples:
Checkout.com , Worldpay, Nuvei
𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬
Card networks serve as the central infrastructure layer between issuers and acquirers.
► Key Functions:
→ Route transaction requests between issuer and acquirer
→ Establish dispute resolution protocols
→ Set interchange and assessment fees
→ Manage card branding and acceptance standards
► How They Make Money:
Card networks earn scheme fees, cross-border fees, and fraud assessment charges
► Examples:
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx
𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬
Gateways act as the secure portal through which card data travels from the consumer to the acquiring bank.
► Key Functions:
→ Route transactions to the appropriate processor
→ Offer tools for fraud prevention, 3DS, and retry logic
→ Provide dashboard and reconciliation interfaces to merchants
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: The tokenization process may be performed by 3rd Party vault VGS, Acquirer Checkout .com, Gateway DEUNA, and Merchant...
► How They Make Money:
Gateways charge monthly platform fees, per-transaction fees, and revenue-sharing arrangements
► Examples:
DEUNA, CellPoint Digital
𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬
Aggregators combine payment services into a single offering, especially for smaller merchants
► Key Functions:
→ Act as Merchant of Record (MoR), processing under their own MID
→ Aggregate transactions across merchants
→ Handle onboarding, settlement, and risk management
► How They Make Money:
Profit from higher per-transaction fees and managing float
► Examples:
Paddle, Stripe, PayU
Sources: Travel & Payments and Arthur Bedel
Want your message in front of 100.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?
Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an e-mail.
Comments ()