Airwallex achieves $4 billion valuation with latest funding round

Airwallex has raised more than $700 million in equity funds to date

Airwallex has raised $200 million in an oversubscribed series E round, increasing the company’s valuation to $4 billion. 

This latest investment follows an extended series D capital raise earlier this year for the Australia-headquartered payments provider, as it pursues global expansion, multiple product development initiatives, growing its sales and commercial teams, and increasing its breadth of offerings for small and larger businesses operating in the digital economy. 

Lone Pine Capital led the series E financing round. New investors G Squared and Vetamer Capital also participated, alongside existing investors including 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China.

With the completion of the series E round, Airwallex has raised more than $700 million in equity funds to date. 

Jack Zhang, co-founder and chief executive officer at Airwallex, comments: “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.”

Zhang adds: “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.”

Airwallex has seen significant business growth in the last year, recording year-over-year revenue growth of nearly 150% for the first half of 2021, and processing more than annualised $20 billion for a global client portfolio that has quadrupled in size, serving innovative global businesses such as GOAT, Papaya Global and Stake.

The company has nearly doubled its headcount in 2021 and employs almost 1,000 employees today in more than 20 locations globally.

This year, Airwallex launched a series of new products and reached major milestones with its global expansion plans, opening for business in the US last month, as well as securing licences in the Netherlands and Malaysia.

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

Image: Airwallex

Mark Dugdale