Airwallex founders launch VC fund
The founders of Hong Kong-headquartered financial technology provider Airwallex, which has received $500 million in VC funding, have launched their own venture capital fund.
Capital 49 will target $200 million to invest in early-stage start-ups already part of the Airwallex service ecosystem across e-commerce, software-as-a-service, business services, and fintech. Two fintech companies have been invested so far but not identified.
Airwallex’s founders include Jack Zhang, Max Li, Lucy Liu, and Xijing Dai, Chinese entrepreneurs and students who met each other in Australia. They set up Airwallex, an international enterprise payments specialist, with a view to solving a pain point they experienced as individuals transferring money to and from home. They are contributing to the Capital 49 fund in their own capacity.
“As an organization, Airwallex could not have achieved what it has today if not for the players within our ecosystem,” Zhang, who is also CEO, said in a statement. “With this fund, we will continue to empower businesses to grow without borders by providing them access to capital, a global network, and deep insights and expertise, while ensuring we continue to generate financial returns for our investors.”
Airwallex claims to offer end-to-end services in business accounts, expense cards, and various customized fintech services via 800 employees across 12 offices globally. Clients include Tencent Holdings, JD.com, Ctrip, and MasterCard. It recently launched a suite of new products including online payments offerings in Hong Kong and Australia, as well as an international money transfer card service for businesses in Hong Kong.
A $300 million Series D round in March valued Airwallex at $2.6 billion and facilitated an exit for Gobi Partners, the company’s first institutional investor, with a 100x return. Previous backers also include Tencent, MasterCard, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital, Square Peg Capital, Grok Ventures, Skip Capital, ANZ Bank, Salesforce, Gravity Venture Capital, and Huashan Capital.
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