Choco Up partners with Airwallex to empower cross-border e-commerce

Choco Up teams with Airwallex

Hong Kong, 17 March 2022 - Choco Up, Asia's leading revenue-based financing and growth platform, announces today its partnership with global fintech platform Airwallex, in a strategic partnership to support the future growth of cross-border ecommerce. By combining Airwallex’s proprietary global payments infrastructure with Choco Up’s flexible recurring funding solutions, the partnership enables a comprehensive and integrated finance solution fore-commerce companies across Asia.

This first of its kind, turnkey solution covers cross-border payments, collections, and growth funding, and addresses the needs that will enable e-commerce firms of all sizes to grow beyond geographical boundaries without financial constraints.

"The pandemic has propelled even faster growth of e-commerce companies over the past couple years, many who are in search of new funding and payments options to enable more sustained long-term growth regionally/internationally," said Brian Tsang, Co-founder and COO of Choco Up. "Partnering with Airwallex allows us to build a comprehensive hassle-free payment and funding infrastructure in Asia to empower these businesses to scale across borders without complications and co-create a better future for cross-border e-commerce in Asia."

According to the World Economic Forum, the scale of this problem is vast - estimates show that the global trade financing gap stands at US$1.5 trillion, of which a large portion is inAsia. In particular, for e-commerce businesses, funding can be especially difficult to secure, as many do not have adequate assets to serve as collateral to secure bank loans. Furthermore, private equity and VC firms tend to seek out disruptive innovators in the marketplace; for this reason, traditional e-commerce companies with traditional business models are unlikely to receive equity funding.

Choco Up provides e-commerce companies of all sizes with flexible funding ranging from US$10,000 to $10,000,000 to accelerate their growth, and applying for funding is seamless since Choco Up's proprietary fintech platform automates much of the process. By connecting the companies' sales and marketing accounts to their data integration platform, Choco Up can swiftly conduct artificial intelligence-driven risk assessments on applicant companies within hours. The information gathered enables e-commerce companies to see all their business performance data in one place, helping them identify growth opportunities, optimize their businesses, and stay on top of the competition.

Bringing together Airwallex's global payment technology with Choco Up's funding platform and analytics tools, this solution will serve as a one-stop-shop for e-commerce companies looking to expand internationally. Airwallex's global payment software lets e-commerce businesses make cross-border payments in more than 130currencies at significantly lower costs because of their market-leading foreign exchange rates. In addition, Airwallex Borderless Cards will enable e-commerce merchants to make digital payments across borders that are more secure, transparent, and efficient. This will significantly impact the Asia e-commerce industry, unlocking access to the global retail e-commerce industry worthUS$4.9 trillion in 2021 for Asian e-commerce businesses.

Kai Wu, Greater China CEO at Airwallex said, "We are so pleased to have been chosen as Choco Up’s partner as they continue to support the growth of e-commerce companies across the region. Businesses today require easy-to-use, accessible, safe and cost-efficient payment options, and our global financial infrastructure can enable that for businesses like Choco Up.Our scale API solution offers a centralized way to manage cross-border payment complexities, so businesses can easily transact internationally. We look forward to continuing our partnership, empowering businesses of all sizes to operate anywhere, anytime.”