Airwallex’s $232 million raise brings its valuation close to $10 billion

Payments platform Airwallex has finalised a $232 million (US$150m) Series F funding round at an eye-watering $9.6 billion (US$6.2 billion) valuation.

The company – which was founded in Melbourne but is now headquartered in Singapore – has already dinged the $1 billion annualised revenue mark and is on the hunt to keep expanding its global footprint.

The fintech has now raised more than US$1 billion (A$1.5bn) in venture funding in the decade since it was founded in 2015.

Alongside the raise, another US$150m (A$232m) worth of shares owned by early investors also changed hands in a secondary market sale.

“This investment marks a major milestone in our journey to redefine global finance, and to empower businesses everywhere to grow without limits,” said Jack Zhang, the cofounder and CEO.

Among the investors for the latest round were the likes of Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures, Hostplus, NGS Super, and Blackbird – whose $60 million investment was reported on earlier this month.

“From its roots in Melbourne, Airwallex is evolving into a generational global company,” said Paul Bassat, Co-Founder and Partner of Square Peg.

“Its product offering meets critical needs for a large and growing cohort of global-first, digital-first companies that, in many cases, have complex financial services needs. Jack Zhang and his team are creating something very special, and we believe they are early in their journey.”

Airwallex’s success is based on its ability plug into the disparate network of global currency and financial trading networks, allowing businesses to open accounts with local bank details in multiple currencies.

Letting businesses seamlessly transact across jurisdiction is a high value game, it turns out, with Airwallex reporting 90% year-on-year revenue growth and 50% more customers in the last year.

Airwallex is nearly everywhere now with offices in North America and Europe plus acquisitions in Mexico and Vietnam to complement its strong APAC positioning.

Alongside international currency transactions, Airwallex is spreading across the business financial stack, offering multi-currency cards to manage employee expenses and integrating with common business software like Xero and Shopify.

Last year it also began offering high-interest deposit accounts for retail investors as well as a new startup-specific program.

And while you’re expanding into new markets and offering new products, why not have a bit of fun and sponsor the McLaren F1 team?

• Editor’s note: Initial reporting of the Series F put the figure at $465m. While it repeated the media release headline, it was incorrect at it included the secondary share sale.