Australia's Airwallex gets $160m Series D

Existing investors DST Global, Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Horizons Ventures also participated. It follows a $100 million Series C last year led by DST that valued the company at more than $1 billion and brings total equity funding since inception in 2015 to $360 million. 

Airwallex offers services that enable enterprise customers to make and receive international payments at scale by connecting with third-party websites and processing transactions using instant inter-bank exchanges. Its platform can process thousands of transactions per second and provide a cost-effective alternative to existing payment networks for businesses looking to automate and expand their international payment workflows. Clients include Tencent, JD.com, Ctrip, and MasterCard.

Airwallex’s global presence expanded considerably following the Series C, with new offices opened in Tokyo, Bangalore, and Dubai. This coincided with the launch of partnerships with Visa and Xero. The company plans to use its fresh funding to accelerate customer acquisition and licensing activities in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, while developing new money transfer products and exploring growth through acquisitions. These efforts will focus strongly on the small to medium-sized enterprise market.   

“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,” Jack Zhang, CEO and co-founder of Airwallex, said in a statement. “The commitment and confidence from both new and existing investors in this round is a strong validation of our successes and our strategic vision. With their support, we look forward to accelerating our growth and further empowering businesses across the globe.”

Late-stage venture funding in Australia has experienced momentum in recent years as homegrown technology companies begin to play higher profile roles in a local business culture traditionally dominated by primary industries. The trend has been characterized by a preference for enterprise software, which is seen as more amenable to global scaling through “bottom-up” marketing techniques such as search engine optimization, word-of-mouth, and viral features built into digital products.

ANZ Bank’s VC and start-up incubation lab, known as ANZi, is led by Ron Spector, a former director of technology investment at Macquarie Bank in the US. It focuses on categories that support its parent, including financial services around home ownership and small business transactions. US-based Salesforce Ventures focuses on enterprise technology and has been investing in Australia since 2012. It launched a $50 million Australia fund last year targeting primarily software-as-a-service and cloud computing models. 

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Expansion
• Financials
• Technology
• Australia
• DST Advisors
• Tencent
• Sequoia Capital
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Financial Services