Airwallex, the global fintech firm best known for cross-border payments, is making a strong push into the subscription economy. The company recently acquired OpenPay, a San Francisco-based startup that focuses on subscription management, payment orchestration, and revenue analytics.
This move marks Airwallex’s entry into billing and recurring revenue management, an area traditionally dominated by players like Stripe.
Building the first truly global billing platform
OpenPay brings capabilities that include multi-currency usage-based billing, automated payment recovery, and real-time revenue insights. These features will be integrated with Airwallex’s existing global payments platform, positioning the company to directly challenge Stripe Billing and other competitors, such as Recurly.
Airwallex claims this combination will offer the first truly global billing platform designed for businesses operating without borders.
In a conversation with TFN, Lucy Liu, Airwallex’s President and Co-founder, explained the strategic value: “While Stripe has done an excellent job domestically in the US, Airwallex’s integration of OpenPay gives us a distinct advantage in global payments infrastructure. We’ve spent 10 years specialising in cross-currency and multi-entity structures, and our deep expertise, combined with OpenPay’s automated billing, failed payment recovery, and analytics, offers a comprehensive solution for customers operating across multiple jurisdictions and currencies.
While businesses have traditionally started locally and expanded internationally, today’s tools enable them to be global from day one. This underscores the critical need for robust infrastructure to support global operations. Our integration enhances our capacity to cater to the burgeoning global subscription economy, which is forecast to exceed $1 trillion by 2030.”
Simplifying global subscription revenue for SaaS companies
Airwallex aims to simplify the challenges that SaaS and subscription companies face when managing recurring revenue across multiple currencies and markets. The platform will accommodate newer billing models, like usage-based pricing, which is gaining popularity in sectors including artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
The addition of OpenPay’s tech means Airwallex can now offer an end-to-end solution, giving customers the tools to scale globally with ease.
“We are creating the first truly global billing platform built for businesses operating in multiple markets, and it’s directly addressing the need for an integrated system and the growing demand in the subscription economy. Our established cross-border payment infrastructure and expertise, combined with OpenPay’s end-to-end solutions in automated billing, will enable businesses to scale their subscription services across different regions, which is important for tapping into this growing market,” Liu added.
Airwallex plans to roll out these new billing capabilities to customers by the fourth quarter of 2025, aiming to establish a foothold in this fast-growing market quickly.
