🎧 Live from HumanX: Airwallex Head of Product Shannon Scott on Reshaping Global Payments, Building Elite Teams, and How They're Leveraging AI

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Mar 26, 2025

Shannon Scott, SVP and Global Head of Product at Airwallex, dives into his transition from Palantir to leading innovations in fintech. He shares insights on building a global financial platform with features like multi-currency wallets and Airwallex Spend. The conversation touches on using AI for fraud management and improving customer onboarding. Shannon also discusses scaling elite teams in the competitive North American market and emphasizes the importance of technology in enhancing user experiences for businesses.

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ANECDOTE

Shannon's Palantir Origin Story

Shannon Scott got his start at Palantir as their first international employee focused on Australian intelligence agencies.
He was drawn by their ambitious Silicon Valley culture and vision of becoming a $100 billion company.

INSIGHT

Culture and Team Quality Matter

Palantir thrived by hiring exceptional, mission-driven people aligned with their high standards.
Airwallex aims to replicate this zeal and talent alignment to achieve its ambitious growth.

ANECDOTE

Why Shannon Joined Airwallex

Shannon joined Airwallex attracted by their clear product-market fit and ambitious founder vision.
He saw opportunity to impact as Airwallex was already scaling, valued near $1 billion.

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In March, we traveled to the inaugural HumanX conference in Las Vegas to meet founders, builders, and investors at the bleeding edge of AI. The conference was a great success, and we're excited for it to relocate to San Francisco next April.

While at the conference, I had the chance to sit down with Shannon Scott, SVP and Global Head of Product at Airwallex. Airwallex is the global payments and financial platform for modern businesses. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex has become a dominant global player in financial infrastructure, serving some of the world's largest cross-border companies like Canva, Brex, Navan, Rippling, SHEIN, and more. Airwallex was last valued at $5.6Bn in 2022 and is backed by investors such as Sequoia, Index, Tencent, Salesforce Ventures, Lone Pine, Greenoaks, Mastercard, and more.

In this episode, Shannon and I discuss:

His transition from Palantir to Airwallex and lessons learned from Silicon Valley culture
Airwallex's global product suite and vision for building a global financial platform through products like multi-currency wallets and the new 'Airwallex Spend'
Airwallex's use of AI in fraud management, customer onboarding, and process automation
Scaling great teams in fintech

And much more. Enjoy the show.

Airwallex is a leading global payments and financial platform for modern businesses, offering trusted solutions to manage everything from business accounts, payments, treasury, and spend management to embedded finance. With our proprietary infrastructure, Airwallex takes the friction out of global payments and financial operations, empowering businesses of all sizes to unlock new opportunities and grow beyond borders. Proudly founded in Melbourne, Airwallex supports over 150,000 businesses globally and is trusted by brands such as Brex, Canva, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN and many more.

Shannon Scott is SVP, Global Head of Product at Airwallex. Shannon is responsible for product strategy and delivery across all Airwallex domains including card issuing, online payments, business accounts, and platform infrastructure. He was an early employee of Palantir Technologies, where he founded Palantir's international operations in both Australia-New Zealand and Europe. He was responsible for building out the initial business development and delivery teams in both regions, where clients spanned both government and large commercial enterprises. Shannon has a combined degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University or Melbourne and has focused on the intersection of software engineering and technical business development throughout his career, including in an advisory capacity to numerous Australian startups.

Ryan Zauk is the Host of the This Month in Fintech Podcast and Bay Area lead for the broader This Week in Fintech platform. In his day job, Ryan is an investor at OMERS Ventures, the direct investing arm of one of the world’s largest pension plans with over $130Bn in net assets. Prior to OMERS, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s Tech Investment Banking team focused on M&A and capital markets. He is based in the Bay Area. You can find him on Linkedin or Twitter.