When businesses across EMEA are ready to go global, Airwallex’s SME & Growth team is often the first call. We help founders and finance leaders turn ambition into action.
One example: A fast-growing fintech spent nine months trying to open a UK bank account — stalling their entire expansion. Airwallex had them live with a GBP account in under a week.
The impact:
- Bank account setup: 9 months → 1 week
- Settlement times: days → under 2 hours
- Expense management: 15 minutes a week with Corporate Cards that give local teams spending freedom and finance teams full visibility
Meet Chris, one of the leaders driving this work from the UK.
As a Sales Manager in SME & Growth, Chris partners with customers across EMEA, shapes go-to-market strategy, and leads a team that thrives on complex cross-border challenges.
“We take the financial headaches off the table so founders can focus on growing, not wrestling with banks and spreadsheets,” Chris explains.
From real estate to fintech
Chris started his career in real estate, first launching his own business after university and later joining a global real estate company. It was there he saw firsthand the gap between startup ambitions and the systems needed to scale. He spent hours chasing accountants into local branches for basic reports and manually updating client financials daily just to give them real-time visibility.
Those frustrations pulled him toward fintech, where he could stay close to the tangible world of real businesses but move faster and get closer to the cutting edge of technology. Airwallex stood out from the start.
“It was addressing clear, fundamental challenges for businesses in a space largely dominated by legacy banks and point solutions, particularly on the global stage,” Chris says.
For him, it was the answer to the pain points he’d lived through: scalable user management, secure access controls, and powerful APIs that replace manual work with automation that just works.
What the SME & Growth team actually does
The SME & Growth team helps high-potential EMEA companies scale across borders.
Some are expanding into new markets. Others are modernizing their financial operations so they can move faster and run more efficiently. Often it’s both.
For each customer, the team designs the right combination of products.
Think of it as “banking+”: billing, banking, and spending all brought together on a single, scalable platform. The mix is tailored to each company’s strategy, stage, and operating model. And the results speak for themselves.
One customer now processes 100+ currencies and settles in 10+, cutting settlement times from days to under two hours.
A global marketplace moves hundreds of millions through their platform across 180+ countries without building banking infrastructure in-house.
And a payroll platform spins up multi-currency wallets in 12 currencies in about two days, unlocking faster, lower-cost cross-border payouts for their customers.
Because many EMEA customers operate across multiple countries, Chris and his team work closely with Product, Operations, and Risk to make sure every solution actually works in practice and can scale as the customer grows.
Who thrives in SME & Growth
As Airwallex expands in EMEA, Chris is focused on building a team that can own complex problems end to end. People who tend to do well here share a few things in common:
- They’re genuinely curious. The kind of person who asks a payroll platform why they’re settling in USD when their contractors are paid in five other currencies.
- They’re comfortable with change. Last quarter, the team launched a new product in a new market in under six weeks and helped shape the GTM as it happened. That’s the pace.
- They’re obsessed with making the impossible possible. One team member unlocked a deal everyone thought was dead by completely redesigning the customer’s payout flow.
It’s a demanding environment, but it’s also one where people grow fast. You’ll get exposure to multiple markets, a broad product surface, and regular cross-functional collaboration.
For Chris, one of the most rewarding parts of the job is watching people step into bigger problems and realize what they’re capable of.
Thinking about joining SME & Growth in EMEA?
When candidates ask what they should know before joining, Chris is honest about both the challenge and the upside. Here’s what will set you up for success:
- Learn fast. There’s a lot to absorb, from product to regulations to customer use cases. The people who do best here are the ones who enjoy that.
- Lean into cross-functional work. You’ll be at your best when you see yourself as part of a wider system, not just a sales team.
- Think like an owner. Treat your patch like your own business. Spot opportunities. Shape how we grow.
If you want to sell a product that replaces nine months of banking headaches with a one-week solution, and do it alongside some of the most ambitious companies in EMEA, this is the team.
Check out open roles in our London Sales team here.
