Airwallex now valued at $5.5 billion following oversubscribed Series E

Airwallex now valued at $5.5 billion following oversubscribed Series E

Airwallex founders Xijing Dai, Jack Zhang, Lucy Liu and Max Li.

Fintech platform Airwallex today announced it has raised US$200 million (AUD$275 million) in an oversubscribed Series E financing round, increasing the company’s valuation to US$4 billion (AUD$5.5 billion).

It comes just six months after the company achieved a $3.5 billion valuation, cementing its position as one of the fastest-growing Australian unicorns with more than US$700 million in equity funds raised to date.

The latest round was led by Lone Pine Capital, with new investors G Squared and Vetamer Capital Management joining the raise alongside existing investors including 1835i Ventures, DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China.

The investment will support the Melbourne-founded, Hong Kong-based Airwallex’s global expansion plans and enable it to accelerate multiple product development initiatives according to co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang.

“We are excited to welcome Lone Pine Capital and our new Silicon Valley investors. Their wealth of experience, foresight and successful industry track records are a significant validation of our business and global growth strategy,” said Zhang.

“From the start, our vision has been to build a global financial operating system that will allow modern businesses to operate without borders.

“This additional capital enables us to scale our presence in North America, UK, Europe and other new markets including the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia, and become a dominant leader in global payments.”

The fintech says it has seen significant growth in the last year, recording year-on-year revenue growth of nearly 150 per cent for the first half of 2021, and processing more than US$20 billion for a global client portfolio that has quadrupled in size.

Airwallex has also doubled its headcount in 2021 and employs close to 1,000 people in more than 20 locations globally.

“Airwallex has a clear competitive advantage in the digital payments market,” Lone Pine Capital managing director David Craver said.

“Its unique Asia-Pacific roots, coupled with its innovative infrastructure, products and services, speak volumes about the business’ global growth opportunities and its impressive expansion in the competitive payment providers space.

“We are excited to invest in Airwallex at this dynamic time, and look forward to helping drive the company's expansion and success worldwide.”

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