Office Hub supercharges global workspace marketplace expansion with Airwallex

Office Hub started with a beautifully simple idea: help companies find the right serviced or co-working space. What began as a boutique brokerage in Sydney has since grown into the world's largest marketplace for flexible office space, with 600,000 businesses helped across 110 countries.

Every month, Office Hub helps 5,000 to 6,000 companies find their ideal workspace, from Fortune 500 giants to first-time founders. They have eight offices around the world and are actively expanding through a licensing model, with new franchises currently launching in the Netherlands, Ireland, and India.

More recently, Office Hub built a second vertical, Property Hub, a Salesforce-native CRM that is rapidly becoming a leading technology solution for commercial real estate..

Underpinning it all is a belief that technology, including finance, should work as hard as the team does.

The barriers of traditional banking

When Office Hub made the move into the UK market, Grant assumed setting up a local bank account would be straightforward. It was not.

He made appointments with half a dozen banks, and walked away with nothing. Payroll was due. Invoices needed to go out. And Office Hub still had no UK bank account to collect payments into.

"I flew back to Australia, still didn't have a bank account set up”, says Grant. “And it wasn't through being a novice, I went beyond the call of duty."

The problem wasn’t just the UK. As Office Hub expanded into Singapore, the US, and across Asia, a patchwork of local banking relationships created new problems. Some clients deducted unexpected interbank fees from payments. Others refused to make international transfers at all. Getting paid by international companies became a constant battle.

Grant Philipp

CEO and Founder, Office Hub

A good day for me is not ever having to talk to a bank. I shouldn't need to. It should be seamless, invisible, and just happen in the background.

Features that feel “too good to be true”

A Google search led Grant to Airwallex. He was sceptical. "I thought, 'This seems a little bit too good to be true.' Then the UK bank account was set up in around 24 hours.”

From there, the expansion was rapid. Singapore came next, then the United States, and more markets after that. Each Airwallex Global Account took minutes to set up, giving Office Hub a local banking presence without the paperwork, the branch visits, or the waiting.

The impact was immediate. Clients who had previously stalled on international transfer processes or quietly deducted fees from payments suddenly had a simple, local way to pay. Office Hub started getting paid in full, on time.

Grant Phillipp

CEO and Founder, Office Hub

All of a sudden, we had different bank accounts, we felt local, we got paid local, and we got paid on time. It just stopped all of that friction.

The UX made a strong impression too. After years of navigating clunky banking apps from institutions across Asia and Europe, the clean Airwallex interface stood out.

"The UX is actually built with brains,” says Grant. “It gives you all the functionality and insights you need, and really lends itself to the uneducated when it comes to banking."

Cards that keep users in control

As Office Hub's global headcount grew, managing team spend across multiple countries and currencies became its own challenge. Airwallex Corporate Cards changed the way Grant runs expenses across the business.

Each team member now receives a monthly allowance loaded onto their card — and when the limit is reached, it stops. No more end-of-month surprises, no conversations about why $100 became $300.

Grant Phillipp

CEO and Founder, Office Hub

You set your cap, set your limits, and it cuts off. I can see the guys hitting the pub one more time trying to get that last little squeeze — and then their own card has to come out.

The cards also solved a subtler problem, SaaS subscription creep. Office Hub runs on dozens of software tools, and some providers have continued to charge or increased charges even after cancellation attempts. By routing all software subscriptions through dedicated Airwallex cards with hard spending limits, Grant now has a failsafe.

For a founder who travels constantly between Sydney, London, Singapore, and the US, having one platform to issue, limit, and manage cards across markets with full visibility has been quietly transformative.

Building the future with Airwallex

Looking ahead, Office Hub is embedding Airwallex even deeper into their business. Property Hub — their Salesforce-native CRM for the commercial real estate industry — is being built with native Airwallex and Xero integrations, so that every real estate group that signs up gets a fully connected financial and operational stack from day one.

New franchisees under Office Hub's global licensing model will be set up with Airwallex as a standard part of their launch kit, giving the whole group consistent visibility, controls, and reporting across markets.

The next era of commercial real estate 

For others looking to grow in commercial real estate, Grant suggests putting hesitation about new technologies aside. Office Hub’s experience shows how the right tools can change how a business operates.

His advice is simple. Start small, and let the results speak.

Grant Phillipp

CEO and Founder, Office Hub

Vote with your feet. Run a dual platform for a bit and see how it goes. Start with the cards, or use it for merchant services, or just run it alongside what you've got. Baby steps, then big steps.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is factual information only and is not intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product.