The Weight of Growth

As UK start-ups expand into multiple markets earlier than ever, hidden operational friction is emerging as the real constraint on international growth. For a generation of UK start-ups, international expansion is no longer a future milestone but an immediate expectation. Yet according to Christos Chamberlain, General Manager UK & Europe at Airwallex, the biggest barrier is no longer access to markets – it is the friction within the systems meant to connect them. Entrepreneur UK sits down with Chamberlain to find out more…

Can you briefly share your background and experience in fintech, and what led you to your current role driving growth across the UK and Europe at Airwallex?
My route into fintech was slightly different than most. Before joining Airwallex, I worked at high-growth, global scale-ups like HelloFresh and Flexport. At Flexport, I worked closely with SMEs across the UK and Europe as they navigated the friction of global supply chains while expanding into new markets. I saw firsthand that for these businesses, the physical movement of goods was only half the battle; the financial complexity of expanding globally was a real pain point. That perspective is what drew me to Airwallex. Today, most businesses are international by default, hiring across borders, selling into new markets and managing global supply chains, but their financial systems haven’t caught up. My role across the UK and Europe is to drive Airwallex’s growth across EMEA, while helping businesses in the region close that gap – equipping them with the infrastructure to move money quickly, manage FX exposure and operate globally with greater control.

What are the biggest barriers UK entrepreneurs face when trying to scale globally, and how does that vary by sector?
We recently commissioned research with TechNation for their Scaleup Playbook, which looked at how start-ups across the UK and Europe are navigating growth. What it highlighted very clearly was that operational complexity is becoming one of the biggest barriers to international expansion. The research found that nearly a third (32%) of founders say forecasting or cash runway missteps have disrupted their growth, and a quarter (25%) say cross-border payments have slowed expansion. In practice, that translates into very tangible issues – FX volatility eroding margins, delayed international transfers affecting supplier relationships, and finance teams trying to piece together their cash position across multiple disconnected systems. From a sector perspective, e-commerce and marketplaces feel it earliest because payments and FX are core to the business model. SaaS companies can scale faster initially, but still run into challenges around billing, collections and localisation. For more regulated sectors, compliance becomes a gating factor. But across the board, the common thread is the same – operational complexity increases faster than the systems designed to manage it.

Where do you see UK start-ups losing momentum when expanding into international markets? 
From conversations I have with our customers, start-ups tend to lose momentum just after entering a new market. Many start-ups can land customers in a new market but the struggle comes when they try to scale globally with insufficient operational infrastructure to back their ambitions. Momentum is typically lost in the transition from initial traction to repeatable growth – when businesses need to manage multiple markets, currencies and entities at once. The Playbook data highlights this gap clearly, finding that a quarter of founders are planning international expansion, but only 5% are upgrading their financial systems to support it. That mismatch means growth becomes harder to sustain, not because demand isn’t there, but because the underlying operations can’t keep up.

How important is financial infrastructure (payments, FX, compliance) in determining whether a UK business can scale globally?
It’s fundamental. It determines execution speed and, in a global environment, the ability to move quickly is a real competitive advantage. If you can move money between markets in hours instead of days, maintain real-time visibility over cash and manage FX exposure proactively, you operate very differently. If you can’t, you’re constantly reacting, often after costs have already been incurred or margins have already been impacted. There’s still a tendency to think of this as back-office, but it directly affects growth and efficiency. The companies that scale fastest aren’t necessarily the best funded, they’re the ones that have connected their financial infrastructure so they can execute without friction.

What changes are you seeing in how UK founders approach international expansion compared to five years ago?
The biggest shift is that global exposure is now the default. Start-ups are setting their sights on international expansion from the outset. But where ambition is plenty, operational robustness is lacking. At the same time, the environment has become more volatile, FX can move several percentage points in a day, and trade conditions are shifting more frequently, so finance teams are under increasing pressure to manage that complexity in real time. That means the cost of getting it wrong is higher and the importance of getting the operational foundations right is much greater than it was a few years ago.

What markets outside the UK currently offer the most opportunity for early-stage British companies, and why?
The US remains a key market because of its scale and maturity, particularly for B2B and fintech businesses. Europe is still a natural next step as well, given proximity, talent and customer demand, even with the added operational complexity. We’re also seeing growing interest in hubs like APAC and the UAE, which can act as gateways into broader regions. They offer strong infrastructure and access to fast-growing markets, which makes them attractive for companies thinking globally from an early stage. Ultimately, though, opportunity needs to be balanced with execution. The best market on paper can quickly become the most challenging if the underlying infrastructure isn’t there to support it.

If you were advising a UK entrepreneur preparing for global expansion today, what would be the first three things you’d tell them to get right?
First, build your financial infrastructure early. Don’t wait until you’re operating across multiple markets to think about payments, FX and cash visibility, by then you’re reacting to problems rather than preventing them. Second, prioritise visibility and control. You need a clear, real-time view of where your cash sits and what your exposures are across markets. Without that, it’s very difficult to scale confidently. Third, optimise for execution speed. In a more volatile, fragmented environment, the ability to move money quickly and respond to change is a genuine competitive advantage. The companies that succeed are the ones that can turn complexity into something they can operate through, not something that slows them down.