• Giving Back

Beyond Business: How Airwallex is Transforming Its Mission With Pledge 1%

“This isn’t just about ‘giving back, it’s about growing alongside the communities we serve.”

September 30, 2025

by Rob Keith

At Salesforce Ventures, we believe values drive value and the most enduring companies are the ones built on a foundation of purpose. As founding members of Pledge 1%, we’ve seen how this framework helps startups transform their growth journey by embedding social impact into their core mission. By committing 1% of equity, profit, product, or employee time to social good, companies don’t just give back, they pay it forward.

This year, we’re celebrating a powerful example of this transformation: Airwallex, a leading global payments and financial platform building the future of global banking, and one of our portfolio companies. As Airwallex marked its 10th anniversary, co-founder and president Lucy Liu and her team formalized their commitment to the Pledge 1% initiative. Their journey isn’t just a case study in corporate responsibility; it’s a testament to how a company can evolve its identity, deepen its culture, and expand its impact far beyond its balance sheet.

A Natural Evolution, Not a Checklist

For Airwallex, joining Pledge 1% wasn’t about creating a new mission, it was about formalizing one that already existed.

“Our core purpose has always been to help businesses thrive, and that naturally extends to uplifting the communities and ecosystems around us,” says Liu. “As we entered our 10th year, joining Pledge 1% felt like a natural next step to formalize and amplify the social impact work already underway: efforts like our University of Melbourne scholarship program to students and Airwallex for Startups that supports startups through grants.”

The inspiration was visible in their peers. “Seeing how companies like Atlassian, Canva, and Salesforce have woven purpose into their growth journeys showed us this isn’t just about ‘giving back,’” Liu explains, “It’s about growing alongside the communities we serve.”

This mindset led to a transformation of their social good efforts, moving from ad-hoc initiatives to a structured, scalable program built around four pillars:

• Equity: 1% of company equity is dedicated to philanthropic causes, ensuring their success creates a lasting legacy.
• Time: A truly global volunteering program and dedicated platform to empower employees to give back, with participation scaling as the company grows.
• Product: The company is exploring how to support nonprofits with discounted services and streamlined solutions, extending their platform’s power to those who need it most.
• Profit: Ongoing initiatives, such as their partnership with the University of Melbourne, are funded directly from their balance sheet to support scholarships and mentoring for students.

A key part of this transformation was the collaborative approach. “Teams across Finance, Legal, People, and Global Leadership all came together to shape the vision,” Liu says. “Leadership buy-in grew as we linked each element to our long-term goals: building credibility, empowering employees, and ensuring our success delivers broader impact.”

Airwallex also baked scalability into their model. For example, Airwallex’s volunteering platform grows alongside headcount, equity expands as the business scales, and nonprofit support adapts to Airwallex’s expanding global footprint.

“It wasn’t driven by a single voice, it was a shared belief in doing well by doing good,” Liu says.

The Ripple Effect: Impact Inside And Out

Since taking the pledge, Airwallex has seen a dramatic cultural shift. Internally, the program has become a powerful force for employee engagement. “Pledge 1% has deepened our sense of purpose,” Liu notes. “Employees are more engaged, morale is higher, and people feel proud to live our values beyond the workplace.”

The numbers prove this out. In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 120 employees contributed volunteer days — a 58% increase over all of 2024.

Externally, the impact is just as clear:

• Scholarships: The University of Melbourne partnership has awarded 43 scholarships, with 40% to women and 57% to international students. Airwallex employees have logged 420 mentorship hours, with some mentees going on to join the company as interns or full-time hires.
• Startup support: Airwallex has donated AU$64,000 in acceleration grants in Australia and SG$10,000 in Singapore, plus mentorship and resources to over 1,800 startups globally through the Airwallex for Startups program.
• Community building: Since taking the pledge, Airwallex has launched several new impact initiatives, including donation frameworks, social impact partnerships, and expanded volunteering opportunities across its global offices.

Customers and partners have also taken notice. “Being purpose-driven builds trust with the market,” Liu says. “By formalizing our commitment, we send a clear signal: we’re here for the long haul and invested in the ecosystems we serve.”

For any founders considering their own purpose journey, Liu’s advice is simple: “Start now, even if it’s small. You don’t need a fully fleshed-out plan—just begin.”

“Salesforce Ventures has been key in our journey — both as an investor and as a fellow member of the movement,” Liu says. “Their leadership showed us that meaningful social impact can be a driver of sustainable business growth. That validated our own strategy and inspired us to build a program that’s both ambitious and achievable.”