Within two months, the Giants collapsed and missed the playoffs, Kapler was fired, and a Cruise vehicle struck a pedestrian and pinned her under a driverless car. Cruise’s permits to operate in San Francisco were eventually revoked, and the jersey patches were replaced with a Chevrolet logo ahead of the 2024 season.
But all of that bad juju didn’t deter another tech company from affixing its logo to the Giants’ game-day sleeves. Fintech startup Airwallex announced Wednesday that it was entering into a multiyear partnership with the Giants, providing financial services while plastering its orange-and-black logo on the sleeves of jerseys and in prominent locations around Oracle Park.
Airwallex — which has similar partnerships with McLaren’s F1 team, Premier League club Arsenal, and New Zealand Super Rugby club, the Blues — sees its newest deal as a high-upside swing for the fences.
“When I think about the Giants, there’s this renewed sense of optimism,” global marketing VP Jon Stona told The Standard. “You have Buster Posey coming on board, you have Tony Vitello coming on board, now there’s new signings like Harrison Bader.”
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It’s unlikely most Giants fans have heard of a company that claims to be “building the future of global banking.” Stona hopes the Airwallex logo becomes “unmissable” for people attending games and watching from home.
CEO Jack Zhang, who founded Airwallex in 2015 in Australia and established its U.S. headquarters last year in San Francisco, said the partnership is part of an investment in the city, where the company plans to expand its office space.
“We’re looking to acquire a million customers over the next five years,” Zhang said, “and one of the biggest strategies for us to achieve that is geo-expansion, but also brand equity, because brand equity helps us not only acquire a customer but also build trust.”
If Cruise is the worst-case scenario for a jersey sponsor, the best outcome for Airwallex and the Giants follows a template set with the company’s McLaren partnership. The sides agreed to a deal in February 2024, and just seven months later, McLaren won its first Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship in 26 years.
The Giants probably won’t win the World Series this year, but Airwallex thinks it can help the club’s business operations and set the stage for future success.
“Usually the team’s off-field performance, if that’s optimized, can have a material impact on the team’s on-field performance,” Stona said. “We can streamline their finances, streamline their billing, their payments, their expense management, modernize that so whatever efficiencies they get off the field, it’ll translate on the field.”
As Airwallex expands its San Francisco footprint, it is also addressing concerns in Australia, where the country’s financial crime watchdog (opens in new tab) reportedly ordered an audit of the company for suspected money-laundering and compliance failures.
Even though many fans can’t name the companies whose logos appear on the jerseys of their favorite teams, the sponsorships are lucrative. In 2023, Sportico reported (opens in new tab) that the Warriors’ jersey-patch sponsorship deal with Rakuten is estimated at $45 million annually, while the New York Yankees’ agreement with Starr Insurance nets the club $25 million each season.
Airwallex and the Giants did not disclose the terms of their agreement. Stona, who wore a Giants hat on a video interview from Singapore, called the partnership a “serious moment” for Airwallex and wants to see the Giants thrive, and also noted that the deal could be a “door-opener” for other partnerships with U.S. teams.
Of course, the Cruise deal also started out with optimism, but Kapler’s appearance in an advertisement (opens in new tab) was a harbinger of how quickly the Giants’ season — and the Cruise partnership — faded to black.
“And with every sunset, we look ahead to the promise and potential of tomorrow, where anything is possible,” Kapler said in the ad.
Anything, including the possibility of ceasing operations.
The bar Airwallex must clear is incredibly low.