Airwallex gains US$6.2b valuation in Series F, signals AI-led future
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The news: Australian payments platform Airwallex has completed a USD300 million ($465.2 million) Series F round from investors including local venture capital firms Square Peg, Blackbird and Airtree.
The numbers: The funding round valued the Melbourne-founded business at USD6.2 billion and brings Airwallex’s total financing to-date to USD1.2 billion. The Series F includes USD150 million in secondary share transactions from early investors.
The context: Other investors in the round included DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Hostplus and NGS Super. Visa Ventures has also joined as a strategic investor.
Airwallex says it will use the additional capital to expand its global infrastructure into new markets and continue refining and scaling its business software.
Co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang said via LinkedIn that Airwallex's next chapter "is about embracing AI to unlock fully autonomous financial operations," as the company believes AI will fundamentally change how businesses are built and scaled.
An Airwallex blog post added that the company will integrate AI to enhance efficiency, improve decision-making, and reduce friction across its platform, which will "reshape how companies are built and scaled."
Co-founder and CEO, Lucy Liu, told the AFR that Airwallex is planning for an IPO within the next 12 months, but timing will depend on market conditions.
After focusing on expansion in the Americas and EMEA over the past four years, a press release said the company in March achieved USD720 million in annualised revenue, up 90% year-on-year, surpassing USD130 billion in global annualised payments volume. The company has grown its customer base by 50% and now works with 150,000 businesses globally. The company expects to hit USD1 billion in annual run rate revenue in 2025.
In 2022, Airwallex was valued at USD5.6 billion in a USD100 million extension funding round.
What they said: Paul Bassat, co-founder and partner of Square Peg said: “We are excited to be leading Airwallex’s most recent funding round. From its roots in Melbourne, Airwallex is evolving into a generational global company. 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.”
The sources: Airwallex Businesswire, AFR, Airwallex blog post
