- Airwallex makes history as it closes second fundraising round
- Fintech term builds platform that combines payments and forex transfer in one transaction
- Funds will be utilised to construct Australian company’s payments network
Airwallex recently closed the second-largest ever fundraising round in Australian startup history, with the fintech company raking in AUD $108m (USD $80m). The Australian company’s Series B round was led by Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital China and Tencent Holdings.
Airwallex is currently putting a network in place for the cross-border payment platform it built. Airwallex’s system combines international money transfers with foreign exchange in a single transaction.
In 2017, its Chinese-Australian founders raised a total of $26m (USD $19m) from the very same investors. This year, three more backers were added to this list – Horizons Ventures from Hong Kong, Hillhouse Capital from mainland China, and Central Capital Ventura from Indonesia. Mastercard is also an existing investor because the payment giant’s Send platform is partly powered by Airwallex.
Recent data from Internet Dealbook notes that the investment amount ranks second only to Sydney’s Campaign Monitor which raised a whopping USD $250m in 2014. The email marketing company was backed by Insight Venture Partners, an American venture firm.
The new funding poured into Airwallex will mostly be utilised for building the company’s payments network, including the programming of an interface for businesses and banks to enable them to connect to the Airwallex ecosystem.
The fintech company will also be using the funds to create an algorithm that will make sending money cheaper and faster. Reports say that the algorithm will facilitate the cheapest and fastest way of sending cross-border payments. According to Airwallex representatives, foreign exchange conversion is automatic in the system and ensures that senders do not have to pay for fees with inflated margins.
Airwallex officials also claim that the platform can process thousands of payments per second.