Moving a container across borders is already complicated. Paying everyone involved should not make the process even harder.
Visa and Airwallex have joined forces to develop embedded finance solutions for freight and shipping platforms. The partnership targets a stubborn problem inside global logistics: goods may move quickly, while payments, invoices and settlement processes remain painfully slow.
The two companies want financial services to sit directly inside the digital platforms that freight operators already use. Rather than sending businesses through separate banking portals, spreadsheets and manual approval processes, payment tools could become part of the freight workflow itself.
That sounds like a small technical change. For companies waiting weeks to receive money, it is not.
Freight Payments Still Run on Old Processes
Logistics companies have invested heavily in digital booking systems, shipment tracking and automated supply chain tools. Payment infrastructure has not always kept pace.
Freight businesses still deal with fragmented systems, manual documentation and long settlement cycles. Cross-border transactions add another layer of difficulty through foreign exchange costs, different currencies and banking delays.
Payments in the shipping sector take an average of 42 days to reach the invoicing company, according to figures cited by Visa and Airwallex. Processing and administrative expenses may also represent nearly one-fifth of total transportation costs, partly because employees still handle large volumes of documents manually.
That delay creates a working-capital problem. A freight company may have completed the shipment, paid fuel costs and covered port charges, yet still be waiting for the customer’s payment to arrive.
The money exists. It is simply stuck somewhere between invoicing, approval, currency conversion and settlement.
Visa and Airwallex Want Payments Built Into Freight Platforms
The partnership will combine Visa’s experience in commercial payments, payment acceptance, risk management and solution design with Airwallex’s cross-border infrastructure and embedded finance technology.
The companies are not pitching a generic payment product and hoping freight businesses can adapt it. Their stated goal is to create tools around the way shipping and logistics platforms actually operate.
This could allow a freight platform to offer payment acceptance, multi-currency transactions, supplier payouts and other financial services without forcing users to leave the platform.
For operators, the experience may feel less like opening a financial product and more like using another built-in function alongside booking, tracking or documentation.
Visa has increasingly positioned embedded payments as a core part of vertical software platforms, particularly in sectors such as freight, fleet management and healthcare. The company argues that payments can become part of the product experience instead of remaining a disconnected back-office task.
Airwallex Brings the Cross-Border Infrastructure
Airwallex gives the partnership much of its global payments plumbing.
Its embedded finance platform allows businesses to integrate payment acceptance, transfers, foreign exchange and card issuing into their own products through APIs and prebuilt components.
Airwallex says its infrastructure can support payment acceptance in more than 180 countries, transfers to over 200 countries and local card issuance in more than 60 countries.
That reach matters in freight. A single shipment may involve a shipper, carrier, freight forwarder, customs broker, warehouse operator and port service provider spread across several markets.
Each participant may use a different currency or banking system. Every handoff creates another place where a payment can slow down.
Embedding Airwallex’s infrastructure into freight platforms could reduce some of that friction. Platforms may gain a simpler way to collect money from customers, convert currencies and pay suppliers without stitching together several providers.
Faster Settlement Could Free Up Working Capital
The biggest selling point is not convenience. It is cash flow.
Freight operators regularly pay costs before receiving the final customer payment. Fuel, labour, warehousing, insurance, customs charges and port fees do not wait for a 42-day settlement cycle.
When payments move faster, companies can reuse that capital for the next shipment. Smaller logistics businesses may benefit the most because they generally have less cash available to absorb long delays.
Christos Chamberlain, Airwallex’s General Manager for the UK and Europe, said capital should fund the next shipment rather than remain trapped while cross-border payments clear.
That captures the practical value of the partnership. A faster payment is not simply a better customer experience. It may determine how quickly a freight operator can accept another job, pay a carrier or expand into a new route.
Embedded Finance Is Becoming More Industry-Specific
Fintech companies once promoted embedded finance as something almost any software platform could add. The market is becoming more specialised.
Healthcare platforms have different payment needs from construction software. A freight marketplace does not operate like an online retailer. Shipping companies deal with milestone payments, large invoices, multiple counterparties and complicated documentation.
Visa and Airwallex appear to recognise that difference.
Their partnership signals a move towards financial infrastructure designed for a specific industry instead of a general toolkit marketed to everyone. Visa brings knowledge of commercial payment networks and risk. Airwallex supplies the multi-currency accounts, payment rails and API-based infrastructure.
Neither company has disclosed a launch date, named participating freight platforms or explained exactly which products will reach the market first. The direction, however, is clear: financial services will move closer to the operational software that logistics businesses use every day.
The Partnership Builds on an Existing Visa-Airwallex Relationship
Visa and Airwallex are not starting from zero.
The companies already have a relationship covering cross-border business payments and card-based financial products. Visa also lists Airwallex as a platform partner that helps businesses embed payment acceptance, global treasury functions and multi-currency card issuing into their services.
The freight initiative takes that collaboration into a more specialised market.
It also fits Visa’s wider push into embedded commercial payments. In 2025, Visa and Transcard launched an embedded working-capital platform for freight and logistics users of Freightos-owned WebCargo.
Freight is becoming a useful testing ground for financial technology because its payment problems are easy to see. Transactions are international, participants are numerous and delays immediately affect operations.
Fixing those issues will be harder than adding a payment button. Still, the potential payoff is much larger.
Freight Platforms Could Become Financial Hubs
Digital freight platforms once focused mainly on matching loads, comparing rates or tracking shipments. Embedded finance gives them a chance to play a larger role.
A platform could eventually help customers book transportation, pay carriers, manage currencies and access working capital from one interface. That creates a more complete service for users and potentially opens new revenue streams for the platform.
It could also make switching platforms more difficult. Once financial tools become tied to daily operations, businesses may be less willing to move elsewhere.
Visa and Airwallex are betting that freight companies want fewer disconnected systems and less time spent chasing payments.
They are probably right. The real test will be whether their planned infrastructure can handle the messy reality of global shipping without adding another layer of complexity.
Sources
- FinTech Magazine – Visa and Airwallex Bring Fintech Overhaul to Freight Payments
- Visa – Embedded Payments Across Industries
- Visa Partner Directory – Airwallex
- Airwallex – Embedded Finance and Platform APIs
- Visa – Embedded Working Capital Solutions for Freight and Logistics