Visa and Airwallex have announced a collaboration to develop Embedded Finance solutions for freight and shipping platforms.
The companies plan to combine Visa's commercial payments, acceptance, and risk management expertise with Airwallex's Embedded Finance infrastructure and multi-currency platform technology. The collaboration targets long-standing issues in the freight sector, including extended settlement cycles, working-capital constraints, foreign-exchange complexity, and operational friction tied to cross-border trade.
Addressing settlement delays in freight
According to the companies, payments in the shipping industry take an average of 42 days to reach the invoicing company, while processing and administrative costs linked to manual document handling can account for close to one-fifth of total transportation costs. These figures illustrate the scale of inefficiency that persists despite growing digitisation across freight booking and logistics management.
Rather than applying standardised payment tools across sectors, Visa and Airwallex intend to design solutions around the specific operational needs of freight and shipping businesses. The aim is to allow freight platforms, digital forwarders, and logistics marketplaces to embed payment and financial capabilities directly into existing workflows, enabling customers to manage costs, access working capital, and move funds across multiple countries and currencies within the same digital environment.
The initiative builds on the companies' broader working relationship, which has previously focused on cross-border B2B payments. This latest step extends that collaboration into a more specialised, vertical-specific model, with the stated intention of creating a repeatable framework that could later apply to other complex B2B sectors where payment infrastructure has not kept pace with digital transformation.
Alessandro Figueroa, Head of New Verticals & Partnerships, Visa Commercial Solutions, Europe, mentioned that the freight and shipping sector remains fundamental to the global economy but continues to rely on fragmented and manual payment processes, adding that combining Visa's commercial payments expertise with Airwallex's technology platform is intended to help bring Embedded Finance solutions to market for the sector.
Moreover, Christos Chamberlain, General Manager for UK and Europe at Airwallex, said capital tied up during cross-border settlement represents funds that could otherwise support operational needs such as financing shipments, and that the partnership with Visa aims to improve the speed and reliability of payments for freight operators.
Industry context
The freight and logistics sector has seen increased platform digitisation in recent years, with marketplaces and digital forwarders changing how goods are booked and tracked. However, financial processes underpinning these transactions have often remained separate from operational systems, contributing to cash-flow pressure for smaller operators in particular. Embedded Finance has emerged as one approach used by payments providers to integrate financial services directly into industry-specific software, reducing reliance on manual reconciliation and delayed settlement.
