In-depth Insight | From Racing to Global Corporate Competition, Why Are Leaders All Emphasizing the "Innovative Vision"?

In less than a month, the new season of the Formula 1 World Championship (F1) will commence. The engines are prepared to roar, the tires are generating sparks, and the competition of speed and passion will once again excite people.

In the past 2024 season, for the Airwallex official partner McLaren Racing, it was undoubtedly a season of a strong comeback: winning the Team Championship after a 26-year hiatus, with 6 race victories and 21 podium finishes, it was truly glorious.

At the beginning of the new year, when we had a face-to-face meeting with the championship driver Lando Norris of McLaren Racing and the Chief Financial Officer Laura Bowden of McLaren Racing, both mentioned a key word - Innovative Vision. As a leader in the field of motorsport, what are the similarities between the success of McLaren Racing and the global expansion of enterprises, and what new inspirations can it bring to business operators?

Innovation · Technological Innovation Vision: With Continuously Iterative Payment Technology, Anticipate Opportunities

Inside the Track · Technology

Three Key Breakthroughs in Racing Car Design

• Tire Performance | Aerodynamic Efficiency | Mechanical Grip

24 Critical Upgrades in a Single Season

• Floor | Diffuser | Air Intake | Front Wing | Rear Wing | Suspension, etc.

Outside the Track · Technology

Simplify Financial Operations, Save Approximately 12 Hours per Month

• Bulk Payments, Reduce Manual Processes, Accounting Software Integration

Efficiency Upgrade, 90% of Cross-border Payments Arrive within Hours

• Efficient Localized Payments, Better Exchange Rates, Faster Payments

When it comes to technological content, F1 racing cars can be said to be the unparalleled existence on this planet. According to a report from an established F1 team, each racing car contains approximately 14,500 independent components, all of which are custom-made by computer or manually, and then precisely assembled. From engine technology, electronic sensing systems, high-speed braking systems, to carbon fiber lightweight materials, energy management systems, and aerodynamic structures, the innovation and upgrading around these hardcore technologies constitute the main theme of the fierce competition in F1 racing.

Behind the scenes outside the track, another innovation - "Payment Technology" also affects the team's performance. After being plagued by inefficient cross-border payments for many years, McLaren Racing decided to break the shackles in 2024. Through Airwallex's one-stop global payment solution, it turned resistance into motivation, achieved a significant improvement in financial operation efficiency, and laid a solid foundation for the ultimate championship.

"The cooperation with Airwallex is a successful case of our investment in the technology field. Our global payment method used to be inefficient and outdated, relying heavily on manual work. After using Airwallex's fast and efficient global payment solution, it not only saves us a lot of time but also optimizes operating costs. This is a win-win cooperation."

- Laura Bowden, Chief Financial Officer of McLaren Racing

Laura Bowden, Chief Financial Officer of McLaren Racing

In the past year, Airwallex has served 150,000 global customers. In conversations with business operators from different industries and of different sizes, we found that: Those leaders in their respective fields often can proactively change their perspectives, be the first to perceive the significance of payment technology for enterprises, and explore the best practical solutions.

Before the Innovative Vision

"Our platform is mature, we have a large user base, and the money saved from payments is negligible, so there is no need to invest in upgrades."

After the Innovative Vision

"Payments are closely related to user funds. If the payment link is done well, will there be other income-generating opportunities?"

For platform-based enterprises with a large user base and mature development, or giant companies in vertical tracks, it is easy to fall into the trap of the "Uselessness of Payments". Thought patterns such as "It's good enough to use, the ROI is insufficient, and more concerned about business growth" make some decision-makers directly ignore the possible impact and potential opportunities of the payment link.

However, when we look at payments from a different perspective, we will find that it contains unlimited possibilities. It is true that the cost savings in foreign exchange conversion fees, handling fees, etc. from payment technology are insignificant for large enterprises. But as the Chief Financial Officer of McLaren Racing said: "These small improvements are not just marginal benefits, but a pursuit of excellence." We should see the deeper impact of the payment link.

When the fluency, timeliness, and cost of cross-border payments are optimized, the experience of the platform enterprise's customers, merchants, or upstream and downstream cooperative suppliers will also be improved, thereby promoting cooperative relationships and enhancing user stickiness. If at this time, the enterprise's own financial payment products are timely launched, it will further bind the user relationship, thereby more clearly understanding user habits and expanding new income channels.

In this regard, the Embedded Finance solution launched by Airwallex is tailor-made for such platform-based enterprises. Through this model, in addition to using Airwallex's global collection, receipt, foreign exchange conversion, payment, cost management and other products, enterprises can also seamlessly embed these functions into their own platforms (named after their own brands, without the need to jump to an external platform) to provide relevant financial services for platform customers or merchants, thereby extending product capabilities, optimizing user experience, and stimulating new growth points.

Airwallex Embedded Finance Three Major Solutions

Platform Payment Solution: Integrate an end-to-end payment system for global platforms to help your platform achieve more efficient value creation.

• Easily collect global funds through capabilities such as global receipt, collection account, etc., automatically divert platform commissions and user funds, simplify the operation process, and improve the user experience.
• Support the acceptance of more than 130 currencies and 160+ payment methods, as well as efficient payments to more than 150 countries and regions.
• Combine the payment function with other payment functions of your platform to build a charging model and create new revenue channels.

Global Fund Management: From global collection, foreign exchange conversion, global payment, to card issuance, it meets your users' global fund "collection, management, conversion, and payment" needs in one stop.

• Support efficient local collection in more than 60 countries and regions, and local payment in 120+ countries and regions, and can realize automated batch payments.
• A comprehensive and accurate billing and reporting system makes reconciliation no longer cumbersome.
• Such as foreign exchange and payment fees, fees for each transaction, etc.

Financial Account Services: Embedded accounts, card issuance, and payment capabilities in your platform and products to explore new income models.

• It only takes a few minutes to create local and foreign currency accounts for your users, with exclusive account numbers and local bank codes.
• You can easily exchange currency at competitive interbank rates, make payments to more than 150 countries and regions, or conduct other financial operations.
• Through Airwallex's global financial infrastructure and high-quality BIN, unlock the card issuance capability for your users to meet the needs of multi-scenario international payment and expenditure management.

The cooperation between the world's leading SaaS website building platform SHOPLINE and Airwallex is one of the benchmark cases of embedded financial applications. After embedding Airwallex's platform payment solution, the customer stickiness of the SHOPLINE platform has significantly increased, the payment success rate and stability remain leading, and the launch of new market financial products and the entry of merchants have accelerated. In addition, Airwallex's flexible API has made the financial capabilities of SHOPLINE more diverse, opening up more revenue channels.

"The customer experience has improved, and our relationship with customers has become closer. I feel this very obviously. Through Airwallex's rich API, SHOPLINE provides customers with a full-link financial service, and the globalization process is one step ahead."

- RAYMOND HSU, General Manager of SHOPLINE Payment Business

Before the Innovative Vision

"We only want sales volume, survival is the most important. We don't have the energy to manage payments, as long as we can receive money."

After the Innovative Vision

"For a startup company, every penny counts. Why not try something that can save money and time?"

Technological innovation is not the patent of large companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises in the initial stage can also use payment technology to inject advanced genes into the enterprise to achieve process automation and efficiency improvement. According to the World Bank, the number of small and micro enterprises accounts for 90% of global enterprises, and at the same time contributes 50% of global employment. For such enterprises, operating within a limited budget is almost the norm.

In F1 racing, there is also a similar "Budget Cap" rule. According to the regulations, the team's expenditures on racing car research and development, operation, and performance must be controlled within the upper limit. In this regard, the McLaren Racing finance team has responded well.

Transform the Financial Role Positioning

The finance team is no longer defined as an administrative functional department, but needs to closely cooperate with business teams such as engineers and operations to ensure that they can effectively deploy resources without causing waste.

Innovate the Financial Model

Through an advanced fintech platform, monitor the actual expenditure situation in real-time to find available financial space for upgrades and investments during the season. At the same time, use the one-stop platform to reduce manual operations and achieve an efficient automated process.

Refresh the Lean Concept

Every saving is not a penny-pinching, but an opportunity for reinvestment. Through the fintech platform, obtain a better exchange rate, lower cost, and faster timeliness, and release funds at the right time to invest in more needed areas.

At present, there are more than 2,000 industrial clusters in China, among which the top 100 industrial clusters gather 1.801 million private enterprises. Under the trend of the booming cross-border e-commerce and digital transformation, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the industrial belt are upgrading from low-end production and manufacturing to high-end R & D design and independent brands. For this reason, Airwallex provides a one-stop financial payment solution to open a new vision for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises with payment technology.

Airwallex One-stop Financial Payment Solution

Global Business Account: With just one platform, unlock functions such as global receipt, collection, foreign exchange conversion, payment, Airwallex Visa Card, cost management, etc., fully covering the global operation needs of enterprises.

• You can open local collection accounts in more than 20 currencies in more than 60 countries and regions, and have local bank codes and exclusive accounts, eliminating the cumbersome process. Receive payments directly in the local currency, saving unnecessary foreign exchange conversion fees.
• You can make payments in more than 60 currencies to more than 150 countries and regions, enjoying real-time interbank exchange rates. Among them, local payment networks have been connected in more than 120 countries and regions, and about 90% of payments can be received on the same day, and 65% of payments can be received in real-time.
• It only takes a few minutes to create a multi-currency corporate card or employee card, allowing corporate employees to directly consume with the multi-currency account balance, avoiding overseas transaction fees and other hidden fees of foreign currency cards, and mastering all expenditure dynamics in real-time through the same interface.

Global Receipt: Achieve localized online receipt globally, allowing your global customers to pay you in their preferred currency and payment method, thereby improving the payment success rate and saving cross-currency settlement costs.

• Support the acceptance of payments in more than 130 currencies and 160+ local payment methods from more than 180 countries and regions worldwide.
• Direct connection with global card organizations to ensure the stability of bank card receipt.
• Built-in fraud detection and dispute management capabilities to automatically identify suspicious transactions and reduce the probability of chargebacks.
• Multi-currency pricing to avoid foreign exchange risk to a greater extent.

Global Expenditure Management: Through a single platform, efficiently manage the global expenditure of enterprises, save financial operation time, and make your enterprise's financial situation clear at a glance.

• An end-to-end expense management solution suitable for various enterprises, one-stop expense reconciliation, real-time control of employee expenditures, helping multi-subject enterprises achieve efficient expenditure management.
• One-stop upload, approval, payment, and verification of domestic and international bills to automate the accounts payable payment process. Say goodbye to manual data input, customize multi-level approval processes, integrate with financial software, and improve the reconciliation speed.

"With the help of Airwallex, our financial management efficiency has increased by 50%, and the cross-border payment cost has been reduced by 10%. We can save the time of communicating with the bank and put more energy into expanding the global business."

- Richard Li, Founder of the luggage retail brand July

"After accessing the Airwallex service, we continuously explored and optimized based on the actual business and needs, and finally shortened the payment and receipt time by 2 - 3 days, and in most cases, the payment can be received on the same day. The efficient capital flow efficiency just matches our rapid development pace."

- CFO of the Overseas Pet Brand

"After integrating the Airwallex receipt capability into the website for 90 days, the repurchase rate of our users has increased by 36%, and the number of users who make payments through local payment methods has increased by 50%, with a significant growth."

- Rebekah, Business Head of the Environmental Protection Retail E-commerce Brand

Innovation · Pole Position Vision: With High-speed Responsive Payment Technology, Stay Ahead

Inside the Track · Responsiveness

Each F1 race driver can shift gears up to 4,000 times per race

• Tire Performance | Aerodynamic Efficiency | Mechanical Grip

The champion driver can shift gears as fast as less than 0.5 seconds

• Floor | Diffuser |