Fintech unicorn Airwallex nets $160m to expand worldwide

Airwallex, a fintech startup that reached unicorn status last year, announced that it has raised US$160 million in a series D funding round, bringing its total capital raised to over US$360 million.

Investors in the round include new backers ANZi Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, as well as existing investors DST Global, Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Horizons Ventures.

Photo credit: Airwallex

Founded in 2015, Airwallex enables low-cost and high-speed international collections and payments via an application programming interface. Its business account and borderless card offerings are designed to help businesses grow both domestically and internationally.

The company will use the new funds to grow worldwide through customer acquisition and licensing in Europe, the US, and new markets such as the Middle East, according to a statement. It currently has 10 offices in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Singapore, London, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Bangalore.

Airwallex said it’ll also be on the lookout for potential acquisitions in the payments space.

Part of the fresh capital will also go towards expanding its product line to include payment acceptance solutions.

Recently, the company launched Airwallex Borderless Cards with Visa to enable Airwallex account holders to pay suppliers and let their teams make corporate purchases. It also partnered with Xero to enable small and medium-sized businesses to connect their multicurrency financial transactions in Airwallex to Xero.

“The global shift to digital is imminent,” said Jack Zhang, CEO and co-founder at Airwallex. “We envision a world in the not-too-distant future where all businesses will operate and conduct their affairs online – including banking – with the help of modern tools.”

The latest round comes one year after it raised US$100 million in a series C round led by DST Global. In 2017, it raised US$22 million in a series A round, followed by an US$80 million series B raise a year later.