Lucy Liu of Airwallex Is New Zealand's Richest Woman: A NZ$1 Billion Paper Fortune That Began With a $1 Million Cheque at 25
In June, the National Business Review (NBR) published its 2026 Rich List, putting the combined wealth of New Zealand's 150 richest individuals and families at NZ$129 billion, with 26 billionaires. Lucy Liu (Liu Yueting), co-founder and president of global financial platform Airwallex, was named New Zealand's richest individual woman at NZ$1 billion, up from NZ$700 million a year earlier.
Born in northern China and educated at a bilingual primary school in Shanghai, Liu moved with her family to Auckland, New Zealand, at age 12 and attended St Cuthbert's College. She went on to earn a Master of Finance from the University of Melbourne in 2012, then worked in Hong Kong for Barclays and China International Capital Corporation (CICC).
The turning point came in 2015. In Melbourne, a college friend, Max Li, introduced her to fellow Melbourne alumnus Jack Zhang, who was running a coffee shop with friends and losing 5 to 7 percent on cross-border payments for imported packaging. Zhang needed US$500,000 to start a payments company. Liu, then 25 and on a career break, offered US$1 million of her own savings as seed capital. "I was 25, and I had a bit of an overconfidence situation," she later told Fortune. She then joined full-time as co-founder and president. Airwallex was founded in Melbourne in 2015 by five University of Melbourne alumni.
Eleven years on, Airwallex is a global financial platform with dual headquarters in Singapore and San Francisco. Its annualised revenue passed US$1 billion in October 2025, and it now serves more than 676,000 businesses. The company remains private.
So how is the NZ$1 billion figure calculated? Liu holds shares in Airwallex, but her exact stake has never been disclosed. In August 2024, the Australian Financial Review estimated it at between 6 and 8 percent. Rich lists multiply that estimated stake by the company's latest funding valuation: Airwallex's Series F in May 2025 valued it at US$6.2 billion, behind the NZ$700 million estimate that year; its US$330 million Series G in December 2025 lifted the valuation to US$8 billion, and the June 2026 list raised her estimated wealth to NZ$1 billion. A 6 to 8 percent stake brackets both figures.
The number has already moved again. Ten days after the list was published, on June 25, Airwallex announced a US$320 million Series H round at an US$11 billion valuation. On the same arithmetic, her paper fortune has grown further, though it will only show up in next year's list.
Paper wealth is not cash. A private company has no public market price; a funding valuation is simply what the latest investors agreed to pay. Founder shares cannot be sold on an exchange and are bound by company and investor agreements. When the valuation rises, the ranking rises with it; if a future round prices the company lower, the paper fortune shrinks in step. Liu told Fortune in August that Airwallex aims to be IPO-ready by the end of 2026, but that she does not see now as the best time to list. Only a public listing would let the market reprice her stake.
For New Zealand's Chinese community, the girl who arrived in Auckland at 12 topping the women's wealth list was the most watched Chinese face on this year's ranking. In September, her school, St Cuthbert's College, gave her its Making Their Mark alumni award. Note: Lucy Liu the Airwallex co-founder is not the Hollywood actor of the same name.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 刘月婷（Lucy Liu），Airwallex 联合创始人兼总裁（官方肖像）。图片：Salesforce Ventures 发布。 / Lucy Liu, co-founder and president of Airwallex (official portrait). Photo: Salesforce Ventures.
