Payments and banking startup Airwallex is aiming to expand after raising $300 million.
The company’s Series F funding round values Airwallex at $6.2 billion, and will allow it to expand its infrastructure into new markets and continue refining and scaling its software, according to a Wednesday (May 21) news release.
“The global financial system wasn’t built for today’s borderless economy,” Airwallex Co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang said in the release.
“Too many businesses are held back by legacy infrastructure that’s slow, costly, and fragmented. At Airwallex, we’re building a new foundation for the global economy — one that’s fast, seamless, and built for scale.”
The release notes several recent milestones for Airwallex, which in March reached $720 million in annualized revenue, up 90% year over year, and surpassed $130 billion in global annualized payments volume.
The company expanded its customer base by 50% last year and now serves 150,000 businesses worldwide. Airwallex expects to hit $1 billion in annual run rate revenue this year.
The $6.2 billion figure raises Airwallex’s valuation from $5.6 billion, and is slightly above the $6 billion target the company had mentioned when the round was first reported last year.
Meanwhile, the startup, which has its roots in Australia, is expanding into new regions, moving into a new U.S. headquarters in San Francisco and opening outposts in New York and Toronto.
And after getting a payment institution license in Brazil and acquiring MexPago, a Mexico-based payment service provider, Airwallex is preparing to begin serving the two largest economies in Latin America.
Airwallex’s offerings include a financial infrastructure network that allows customers to instantly generate local account numbers in more than 60 countries and to send and receive funds across more than 150 countries. The release notes that 95% of Airwallex transactions arrive within a few hours or the same day, with 68% of them being processed instantly.
Last month, Zhang told the Financial Times that Airwallex is making a push into lending, planning to acquire banking licenses in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
“We are planning to apply for a UK banking licence, the UK is one of the most friendly markets for fintechs … the [Financial Conduct Authority] is still one of the best regulators,” Zhang said.
But in the U.S., becoming a regulated bank is “a lot more complicated,” the CEO said, because of the number of state licenses and regulators. That means Airwallex will likely try to land regulatory approval by acquiring a U.S. bank.
“Any product that a global bank has, we will have,” said Zhang. “Ultimately in a decade I think we’re going to displace some of the global banks.”
