Airwallex co-founder rejected buyout, then built $997m fortune

Global banking and payments platform has grown into $8b entity now based in Singapore

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NEW YORK - Seven years ago, Airwallex co-founder Jack Zhang walked away from what looked like the deal of a lifetime. Stripe was offering to buy his company for US$1.2 billion and legendary Sequoia investor Michael Moritz was urging him to accept.

After weeks hashing out the details and sale price with Stripe's billionaire co-founder Patrick Collison, Mr Zhang was close to agreeing. Then doubts crept in. He called a vote with his three co-founders and, over a WhatsApp call, they decided to turn the offer down.

Since then, the company they founded in Melbourne in 2015 has grown into a US$6.2 billion (S$8 billion) global banking and payments platform, now based in Singapore.

Mr Zhang holds a 12.5 per cent stake worth US$775 million (S$997 million), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is valuing the 40-year-old for the first time.

While Airwallex's latest valuation is less than Stripe's — most recently priced at US$91.5 billion — the two companies are increasingly overlapping as their product lines expand.

In 2024, Airwallex launched a new service helping US businesses accept payments online, bringing it into direct competition with Stripe.

A few months later, Stripe launched multi-currency accounts, something Airwallex has offered since 2018.

"We're going to compete a lot more in the next decade, and I'm excited about that," Mr Zhang said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

He said he plans to have Airwallex ready for an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of 2026.