Airwallex maintains its $US5.5bn valuation with fresh funding to expand international reach

The fastest Australian start-up to hit a billion-dollar valuation is set to expand its global reach after a fresh funding round that has seen it achieve what Canva was not able to do this year.

Global fintech Airwallex has kept its status as one of the highest valued tech companies in Australia following the completion of a $US100m ($159m) raising as it looks to expand its global reach.

The move has allowed the payments company, which featured in The Australian’s 100 Innovators List for a second-consecutive year and the fastest local start-up to reach a billion-dollar valuation, to maintain its $US5.5bn ($8.7bn) valuation it held in 2021.

It comes in the midst of a volatile period for the tech sector which has borne the brunt of the monetary tightening polices by central banks. The country’s largest privately owned tech firm, Canva, had been among the biggest victims of the volatility with its valuation downgraded by $US14bn to $US25.6bn in July.

The latest funding round was supported by Netflix and Amazon investor Lone Pine Capital, the ANZ-backed 1835i Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and superannuation giant Hostplus.

Chief executive and co-founder Jack Zhang said Airwallex had now raised more than $US900m in equity to date. Airwallex, which allows other businesses to operate internationally by enabling quick cross-border transactions, has set a milestone target of reaching $US1bn in revenue in 2025.

The raising was an extension of its Series E fundraising, which had now reached $US400m.

Mr Zhang said the valuation underscored confidence by investors as the company looked to proceed with its global expansion plans and unlock new and untapped markets.

“The market environment remains challenging in the foreseeable future, and while we remain well capitalised, this additional runway allows us to continue our growth plans, product expansion, and hire some of the best talents in the world,” he said.

Mr Zhang said Airwallex had continued to see its business grow with its customer base more than doubling and revenue increasing by 184 per cent year-on-year. It came amid rising uncertainly around the world that the global economy would tip into a recession.

“Multiple new products and services are also being planned in its 2022-23 road map including improvements to its expense management platform and a credit solution, as the company continues to invest in product innovation on top of market expansion and talent acquisition,” he said.

Found in Melbourne in 2015, the company now employs over 1000 people across 19 locations globally and aggressively expanded into Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific in 2021,

It claims that “tens of thousands” of businesses leverage Airwallex’s global payments and banking platform to process payments and move money anywhere around the world.

Among its clients is Qantas who partnered up with Airwallex earlier this year to rollout Qantas Business Money, which allows 350,000 businesses rewards users a system to process multi-currency transactions that offers frequent flyer points as an incentive.