Airwallex, a payments and financial platform for businesses, has entered the racing arena with its latest multi-year partnership deal with the McLaren Formula 1 team. Announced today (Monday), Airwallex has gained the status of Official Partner of the racing team.

A Strategic Deal for Both

Under the deal between the two, Airwallex will optimize the supply chain payments of McLaren’s racing team. The payments company will support the racing team’s global financial operations through its suit of treasury management, cross-border pay-outs, and settlement products.

The partnership was strategic, as McLaren highlighted that it had to incur high foreign exchange fees with its United Kingdom-based singular currency account when making payments to global suppliers.

“In the competitive world of Formula 1, efficiency and performance are crucial both on and off the track,” Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing. “We are delighted to have Airwallex on board and use their innovative and trusted payment solutions to support our team’s financial operations.”

Promotion in the Racing Arena

Along with the payment partnership, the deal includes promotional aspects. Under the terms, the Airwallex logo will appear on the halo of the McLaren MCL38, along with the two drivers and pit crew’s overalls. Further, the logo will appear on other McLaren official branded material.

McLaren F1 team has a massive social media presence as well. It has 12 million followers on Instagram, 3.9 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), and 4.2 million followers on Facebook. Any kind of promotion on thee social media handles would put any brand in front of a massive sports audience.

“Our partnership will play a key role in supporting our global expansion, and we look forward to working with the McLaren team in 2024 and beyond to support our mutual growth,” said Jack Zhang, the CEO and Co-Founder of Airwallex.

When it comes to sports sponsorships by financial services or payment firms, racing and football dominate. As Finance Magnates reported earlier, the Formula One sponsorships, except for the top teams, start from $500,000. Airwallex, however, did not reveal the financials of its deal with McLaren.

McLaren's racing team onboarded several other financial services, including cryptocurrency exchanges, as sponsors. Crypto exchange OKX and forex and contracts for differences broker, FxPro, additionally have multi-year partnerships with McLaren’s racing team.