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Although the economy is exhibiting numerous indicators of recession, many businesses require international trade.
FREMONT, CA: Even if there are many indications that the economy is currently contracting, many businesses still need to conduct business abroad. A firm that offers the tools to carry out and control those transactions has just announced some investments.
The Hong Kong/Australian startup Airwallex has raised USD 100 million, which it will use for M&A and continue growing its business geographically, operationally, and with new products in areas like credit and expense management. Airwallex offers cross-border banking and other financial services for businesses.
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The cash will be provided as an addition to Airwallex's Series E, or technically a Series E-2, since the original USD 200 million in September 2021 was followed by a USD100 million extension in November 2021. Most of the funding came from insiders, including Square Peg, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Lone Pine Capital, Hermitage Capital, 1835i Ventures, and Tencent, in addition to an unnamed large North American pension fund and the Australian fund HostPlus.
The CEO of Airwallex, Jack Zhang, who launched the company alongside Xijing Dai, Lucy Liu, and Max Li, told TechCrunch that sales had increased over the past 12 months. According to him, the company's sales have increased by 184 per cent, its ARR reached USD 200 million in September, and it currently processes close to USD 50 billion in annual transactions. Although the amount is only given as a vague ten thousand, the number of customers has doubled; they include Papaya Global, HubSpot, Plum, GOAT, and others.
However, given the state of the economy right now, this round was not without its challenges. It is currently valued at USD 5.5 billion, which is comparable to Airwallex's achievement a year ago when the valuation skyrocketed by USD 1.5 billion in a matter of weeks.
The environment has made it harder to raise money, according to Zhang. He added that earlier in the year, he and other team members saw what was about to happen, and even though Airwallex still had a sizable amount of cash on hand, USD 600 million out of the total USD 900 million raised as of the end of September, when Zhang spoke, the startup decided to raise more money just in case.
When referring to the prior fundraising, he added that it took two weeks to raise USD100 million last year. They consider it a positive result that they could generate any money at all. Lastly, mentioned that Airwallex had turned down two takeover proposals from rapidly expanding fintech companies and was now entering its Series E extension. Investors or Airwallex itself ever considered whether being independent was the best course of action. Investors think that, despite the larger market, it is best to continue with the company since it gives off all the correct indications.
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