Australian payments and banking group Airwallex tops up Series D by $40m

Taking the fintech’s total raise to $200m in this round.

Airwallex has extended its latest funding round by another $40m, taking the Australian payments group to a Series D funding round of $200m.

The news is just another powerful sign of Australia’s growing fintech sector, where digital banks, alternative lenders and fintechs of all shapes and size have raised significant capital and achieved strong traction over the past 12 months.

Airwallex provides both banking services for businesses, along with payments processing and currency exchange.

It’s proved a powerful combination, with Airwallex collecting customers on both sides of its business and seeing a 50 per cent jump in its global customer base in the third quarter of 2020 alone.

“Across 2020, Airwallex has increased execution velocity in product innovation, infrastructure and coverage expansion – all while ensuring that it continues to deliver an outstanding customer experience,” said CEO and co-founder Jack Zhang.

“Our most significant fundraising round to date, in conjunction with our constant drive for innovation and the foresight to adapt to the evolving world, sets Airwallex up with a solid foundation for the years ahead.”

Zhang added that Airwallex hired over 140 new employees in the first half of 2020 alone, and is also working on launching in the US in the first quarter of 2021.

The additional funding came from new investor Skip Capital along with existing backers like Tencent, Salesforce Venture and Sequoia Capital China.