Visa, Airwallex target freight finance with embedded tools

Visa and Airwallex have agreed to develop embedded finance products for freight and shipping platforms, focusing on payment and cash-flow tools in a sector where settlement delays remain common.

The work will target freight platforms, digital forwarders and logistics marketplaces that want to add financial functions directly into existing processes. These are intended to cover payments, working capital and cross-border transactions across multiple markets and currencies.

At the centre of the project is an effort to address persistent problems in freight finance. Businesses in the sector often face long settlement cycles, pressure on working capital, foreign-exchange complications and administrative friction caused by fragmented payment systems.

According to the companies, shipping payments take an average of 42 days to reach the invoicing company. They added that processing and administrative expenses can account for almost one-fifth of total transportation costs because document handling remains labour-intensive and manual.

Sector focus

The agreement is a more targeted extension of an existing relationship between Visa and Airwallex. Earlier work centred on cross-border business-to-business payments, while this latest move aims to build products for a specific industry where payment systems have lagged behind wider digital change.

Visa is contributing its expertise in commercial payments, merchant acceptance, risk management and industry solution design. Airwallex is bringing its multi-currency infrastructure, embedded finance technology and broader international platform.

The companies want to move beyond standard payment products by designing financial tools around the practical needs of freight and shipping operators. That includes helping platforms reduce payment delays, manage costs and improve access to short-term funding within day-to-day workflows.

The push comes as logistics groups continue to digitise booking, cargo management and freight operations, while many of the financial processes behind those activities still rely on separate systems. That mismatch has created room for specialist financial technology providers and payment networks to tailor products for logistics platforms rather than sell generic corporate payment services.

Embedded payments

Embedded finance refers to including financial services such as payments, lending or accounts within non-financial software products. In freight, that can mean allowing a platform user to pay suppliers, collect funds, access credit or manage foreign exchange without leaving the software used to arrange shipments.

For platform operators, the model can provide a new source of revenue as well as a way to keep customers within a single operating environment. For freight businesses, the argument is that fewer hand-offs between systems can reduce delays and manual work, especially in cross-border trade where documentation and currency management are more complex.

Airwallex said it serves more than 676,000 businesses either directly or through platform customers. The group, founded in Melbourne, has expanded across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and says it holds more than 85 licences.

Visa has been pushing further into commercial and business payments, an area where card networks and financial technology firms are trying to replace slower account-to-account processes and paper-based systems. Freight and shipping represent a large but operationally difficult market because transactions often involve several parties across jurisdictions, with varying payment terms and compliance requirements.

One aim of the collaboration is to create a model that could be used in other business sectors with similar complexity. By concentrating first on freight, the partners are testing whether embedded financial products can be adapted to industries where traditional payment systems have struggled to meet the needs of digital platforms.

"Freight and shipping are fundamental to the global economy, yet many businesses continue to operate with payment processes that are fragmented, manual and inefficient. As digital freight platforms continue to scale, there is a growing need for financial solutions that can be embedded seamlessly into existing workflows without creating additional complexity. By combining Visa's commercial payments expertise with Airwallex's technology platform, we're helping bring new solutions to market quickly, enabling platforms to simplify payments, improve working capital and deliver greater value to the businesses they serve," said Alessandro Figueroa, Head of New Verticals & Partnerships, Visa Commercial Solutions, Europe.

"Cash sitting in limbo while payments clear across borders is capital that should be funding the next shipment, not stuck in transit. Reputations are built on reliability - can you get the container there, on time, every time. Payments need to work the same way. Together with Visa, we're giving freight operators the speed and precision that global shipping demands," said Christos Chamberlain, General Manager for UK and Europe at Airwallex.