Airwallex Raises $100 Million at $5.5 Billion Valuation

• Cross border payments company Airwallex raised $100 million on a valuation of $5.5 billion.
• The funding round was an extension of the company’s Series E round. Airwallex has raised a total of $900 million in funding.
• Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Airwallex was founded in 2015. Co-founder Jack Zhang is CEO.

Cross-border payments company Airwallex has emerged from its extension Series E round with an additional $100 million in capital and its $5.5 billion valuation intact.

“The valuation underscores investors’ confidence in Airwallex’s core business value and fundamentals,” Airwallex CEO and co-founder Jack Zhang said. He added that the market environment going forward remained “challenging in the foreseeable future,” but said the investment would help fuel the company’s objectives with regards to growth, product expansion, and talent acquisition. “By strengthening the breadth of our global reach and product offering, we can better empower our customers to unlock new market opportunities,” Zhang said.

The investment takes Airwallex’s total capital to $900 million. Participating in this week’s funding were existing investors Square Peg, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Lone Pine Capital, Hermitage Capital, 1835i Ventures, and Tencent. Other investors included Australian superannuation fund, HostPlus, and a pension fund based in North America.

Airwallex’s payments and banking platform helps businesses accept payments, move money around the world, and enhance their financial operations. The company also offers a business account that features global accounts, borderless cards, transfers and foreign exchange, payment links, business expense reconciliation, and integration with accounting platform Xero. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Airwallex has enjoyed revenue growth of 184% in the past year and is currently processing nearly $50 billion in annualized transactions.

Named Startup of the Year in the U.S. FinTech Awards and FinTech of the Year at the Asia FinTech Awards, Airwallex announced in August that it was committing an additional HK$2.25 million ($286,650 USD) into its Hong Kong SMEs Initiative. Launched in April, the effort is designed to help small businesses recover from the economic fallout from the COVID pandemic. This latest commitment brings Airwallex’s total support of the initiative to HK$4.5 million ($573,300 USD).

Photo by Harry Shum