Airwallex partners with communication platform Bird to power its global payments infrastructure

Airwallex, a leading global payments and financial platform for modern businesses, have announced its partnership with Bird, a global communication platform, to power Bird’s international payments operations.

Powering Bird’s global payments infrastructure Bird’s platform, applications and APIs help 29,000+ businesses to streamline conversations and build engaging experiences through their customers’ preferred channels – including WhatsApp, Email, SMS, Voice, WeChat, Messenger, and Instagram.

The global nature of Bird’s business – with multiple currencies flowing in and out of operating entities around the world – had led to a fragmented financial operating system, split across more than 20 banking partners around the world. This created operating inefficiencies for the Bird Finance team, particularly in relation to the creation and approval of supplier payments and reconciliation with Bird’s accounting software.

Using Airwallex’s global payments and financial infrastructure, Bird has been able to consolidate its financial operations across multiple entities and currencies into a single platform. This has enabled greater visibility and control as well as the automation of supplier payments around the world, leveraging Airwallex’s proprietary foreign exchange (FX) engine. Bird is also utilising Airwallex’s issuing product to pay its global suppliers and the batch transfers tool to run its own payroll across entities. Additionally, Airwallex and Bird collaborated on a superior integration via Netsuite that provides greater speed, consistency and depth of reconciliation for Bird’s finance team.

Robert Vis, Founder and CEO at Bird, commented, “Prior to working with Airwallex, we were using legacy systems and technology which slowed down our entire global operations. With Airwallex, we’re able to streamline our payments infrastructure and supercharge our finance operations globally. We are continuing to explore more opportunities to leverage the Airwallex product and I look forward to deepening our relationship with the team.”

Pranav Sood, Executive General Manager, EMEA at Airwallex said, “Bird is one of the standout success stories in the Dutch tech community and has revolutionised the way that consumers and businesses communicate on a global scale. We’re proud that Airwallex’s financial technology and payments infrastructure can support Bird’s mission of creating a world where communicating with a business is as easy as talking with a friend. We’re looking forward to deepening our partnership with Bird and serving many more world-leading Dutch businesses with our growing local team in Amsterdam.”

Airwallex was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2015 and is headquartered in Singapore. The company has since grown to over 20 locations globally, currently employs 1,400 people and plans to hire approximately 300 people in 2024.