Salesforce, Tencent, ANZ back Airwallex in $160m round
Airwallex founders Xijing Dai, Jack Zhang, Lucy Liu, and Max Li
Airwallex has raised $160 million in a Series D round, with the Australian fintech startup now reaching a fund total of over $360 million.
The majority of the funding came from new investors, including the corporate venture capital arm of ANZ Bank, called ANZi Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, which is the global investment arm of Salesforce.
Existing investors DST Global, Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital, and Horizons Ventures also participated in the funding round.
In a statement, Airwallex said it plans to use the new funds to accelerate worldwide growth through customer acquisition and licensing, particularly in Europe, the United States, and new markets such as the Middle East.
It also wants to expand its product line to include payment acceptance capabilities through a proprietary gateway solution, as well as partner integration, while seeking out potential acquisition opportunities in the payments space.
In the last 12 months, Airwallex said it has enhanced its product capabilities through the launches of Airwallex Borderless Cards in partnership with Visa and an integration with Xero.
"These new features mark Airwallex's evolution from an international payments platform to a fully integrated end-to-end financial services provider for businesses of all sizes," the company said.
"The global shift to digital is imminent. 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," Airwallex CEO and co-founder Jack Zhang added.
ANZi Ventures managing director Ron Spector called Airwallex "one of Australia's fintech leaders".
"We look forward to working further with the team to support their vision of building a next-generation digital payments platform for SMBs and enterprises globally," he added.
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