Most people think sponsorship is about putting a logo where millions of fans can see it. But some of the smartest deals in sport today aren’t really aimed at fans at all. They’re aimed at the people who sign contracts. Airwallex’s expanded F1 sponsorship with McLaren is a perfect example of a sponsorship that’s really a technology sales strategy.

What happened

Airwallex, a global financial platform for businesses, has become an Official AI Finance Partner of the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, extending a partnership that first launched in 2024, when the two began working together as technology partners. The upgraded role starts in January 2027. 

The timing is no accident. The deal follows Airwallex’s $320 million Series H funding round in June, at an $11 billion valuation, raised to accelerate its next generation of AI-native financial software. That includes T:0, an AI-native platform designed to run a business’s finance function end to end, and Airi, an agentic consumer wallet being developed for delegated payments, spending controls and multi-currency balances. 

Not a logo deal: a live product demo

Here’s what makes this partnership different: McLaren doesn’t just display Airwallex’s name. It uses Airwallex’s product.

Airwallex’s technology gives McLaren multi-currency payment options, letting the team hold core currencies and exchange them quickly at any point, which matters for an operation that buys, sells and pays suppliers across the world. McLaren’s finance chief made the point directly: “Airwallex is our first Official AI Finance Partner and we’re confident in their ability to help us run our financial operations faster and more efficiently.” airwallexmarketing-interactive

In our view, that quote is worth more to Airwallex than any amount of screen time. For a company selling software to businesses, a world-famous customer saying “it works for us” is the ultimate sales pitch.