Singapore-Based Fintech Unicorn Airwallex Raises $300 Million
Jack Zhang, cofounder and CEO of Airwallex.
Headquartered in Singapore, global payments platform Airwallex announced Wednesday it raised a $300 million Series F funding round led by VC firm Square Peg, valuing the decade-old fintech company at $6.2 billion.
The round, which brought Airwallex's total funds raised to over $1.2 billion, included participation from billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global, billionaire Stephen Mandel, Jr.'s Lone Pine Capital, Australian VC firms Blackbird and Airtree, and corporate VC firms Salesforce Ventures and Visa Ventures.
'We are excited to be leading Airwallex's most recent funding round,' said Paul Bassat, cofounder and partner at Square Peg, in a statement. 'From its roots in Melbourne, Airwallex is evolving into a generational global company. Its product offering meets critical needs for a large and growing cohort of global-first, digital-first companies that, in many cases, have complex financial services needs.'
Half of the funding, or $150 million, took the form of secondary share transfers. Across ten or so previous funding rounds, with the most recent being an extended Series E in 2022, Airwallex's backers have spanned 1835i Ventures, a spinoff of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank); billionaire Neil Shen's HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China; billionaire Pony Ma's tech giant Tencent; billionaire Zhang Lei's Hillhouse Capital; billionaire Solina Chau's Horizons Ventures, tied to Hong Kong's wealthiest person, billionaire Li Ka-shing; and pan-Asian VC firm Gobi Partners.
The fresh Series F capital will go towards expanding Airwallex's global infrastructure into new markets and 'refining and scaling' its software for businesses, according to the company. With offices across the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, Airwallex recently entered Latin America's two largest economies, securing a license to operate in Brazil and finalizing its purchase of Mexican payments-service provider MexPago.
Airwallex's team. From left: Xijing Dai, cofounder and CTO; Jack Zhang, cofounder and CEO; Lucy Liu, cofounder and president; Max Li, cofounder and head of design.
'The global financial system wasn't built for today's borderless economy,' Jack Zhang, cofounder and CEO at Airwallex, added in a statement. 'At Airwallex, we're building a new foundation for the global economy – one that's fast, seamless, and built for scale. This investment marks a major milestone in our journey to redefine global banking, and to empower businesses everywhere to grow without limits.'
Founded in 2015, Airwallex facilitates cross-border payments across 60 currencies and over 150 countries. Through its international finance platform, the company's products include multi-currency accounts, borderless cards, expense management and payment plugins, serving more than 150,000 businesses worldwide. To date, its customers have included Australian airline Qantas, HR software company Rippling, fashion retailer Shein, Chinese online shopping giant JD.com and Tencent Music Entertainment.
As of this March, Airwallex reported over $720 million in annualized revenue, a year-over-year increase of 90%, and over $130 billion in global annualized payments. On the back of its growth, the company is eyeing an IPO in the next year, according to local media, although it has not confirmed the targeted size or location of its listing.
Beyond payments, Airwallex is also actively diversifying its business into banking, asset management and other financial services. Last October, the company received a license to provide asset management services in Hong Kong. Similarly, last July, it received a financial services license from Australian regulators to offer businesses access to retail investment products, adding to its existing license in the country.
That Airwallex has emerged as a global leader is no small feat. In the landscape for cross-border payments, 'competition to secure a stake within this evolving market is fierce,' consulting firm EY wrote in a 2024 report, with the industry projected to reach $290 trillion by 2030. Key trends shaping transformations in this space include the demand for seamless, real-time transactions and potential integrations with digital currencies, the firm added. Across its suite of services, Airwallex may continue to face off against behemoths such as payments processor Stripe, which hit a total payment volume of $1.4 trillion this February, and neobank Revolut, which reported a net profit of $1 billion in 2024, its fourth straight year of profitability.
Airwallex's latest fundraise – one of Australia's largest for a private company in the past five years – has defied a recent slump in VC activity across the Asia-Pacific. Deal value in the region fell around 32% to $12.9 billion in the first quarter of the year, down from $18.9 billion the quarter prior, according to an April report by consulting firm KPMG. Still, investment has risen globally, reaching $126.3 billion in the first quarter, charged by a surge of investments in AI.
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