McLaren Racing team adopts Airwallex's payment technology

The fintech and international payments giant Airwallex, which has a global platform for payments and financial services that entered the Israeli market last year, revealed today (Tuesday) how its global financial technology improved the financial operations of McLaren Racing during the 2024 Formula 1 racing season.

Prior to signing the partnership agreement, McLaren's international payments involved 30 separate payments, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Today, using the Airwallex system, McLaren makes payments through an approval process tailored to the company and sends several payments in one batch for approval, a process that takes less than an hour. The new workflow saves McLaren's finance team half a working day a month. 

In the past, McLaren's finance team experienced long transfer times – 2 to 5 business days per transfer – and had to pay transfer fees on dollar payments to the company's international suppliers. Following the implementation of Airwallex's end-to-end payment system, McLaren Racing now enjoys competitive conversion rates and makes local payments in each destination country. McLaren Racing now has the flexibility to pay any international supplier in their local currency while significantly shortening the duration of each transfer. 90% of the company's payments are made within a few hours and 65% are made immediately.  

Airwallex and McLaren announced in February their multi-year collaboration designed to expand McLaren's payment infrastructure for additional needs, which include management tools for treasury and accounting, conversions, making international payments and clearing. The Airwallex global headquarters in Singapore decided to mark the Grand Prix race held in Singapore on Sunday, September 22. In honor of the event, the company erected a first-of-its-kind three-dimensional sculpture in the field of perception art (perception shift sculpture) of the racing driver of the McLaren Racing team Lando Norris. The sculpture was created in collaboration with Michael Murphy, a renowned artist from the pioneers of conceptual art. The piece symbolizes the central role of perception as a drive to success and is a component of Airwallex's regional advertising campaign "Changing Perceptions".

Or Liban, head of Airwallex Israel and the Middle East: "We are used to seeing McLaren Racing in their activities on the track which is characterized by speed and precision. Off-track activity is less visible, but it takes great efforts of world-class teamwork and operational efficiency for the race drivers to finish the race on the podium. We are delighted to play a central role in this effort and help simplify McLaren's global financial operations." 

Laura Bowden, Finance Director of McLaren Racing: "Innovation and speed are essential foundations for our success both on and off the track. Like all McLaren departments, the company's finance team has a mandate to pursue improvements by examining processes and using technologies to optimize the business. About By constantly monitoring expenses and reporting to management, we can free up resources and reinvest them in our activities at the racetracks. We are grateful for the cooperation with Airwallex that strengthens our global financial operations."

Airwallex was founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia and is one of the companies with the fastest growth rate in the world in the field of payments and financial infrastructure. The company is valued at $5.6 billion and has raised more than $900 million from some of the world's leading investment firms, including Sequoia, DST Greenoaks Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine Capital and iVentures 1835 (ANZ Bank). Airwallex employs 1,500 people in 23 offices around the world and intends to recruit additional workers in Israel and the Middle East during the year 2024.

As of August of this year, Airwallex Global was processing more than $100 billion in annual transaction volume, a 73 percent year-over-year increase. In Israel, Airwallex processed transactions in a volume of nearly 500 million dollars in the first year of its activity in Israel. In the first quarter of 2024, the company's revenues in Israel grew at an annual rate of 129% and the volume of transactions increased by 51%.