Airwallex aims to double European footprint following $100m Series E top-up

Fast-growing SME banking provider Airwallex has topped up its already impressive Series E funding round announced two months ago, with an additional $100m at an even higher valuation.

The funding brings Airwallex’s total round size to $300m, and increases its $4bn valuation to $5.5bn, with the top-up led by Lone Pine Capital along with existing investors 1835i Ventures and Sequoia Capital China.

Jed Rose, the general manager for Airwallex in EMEA, told AltFi that as a result of the funding the company will now at least double its headcount in Europe next year to over 150 with ambitious expansion plans.

“In the Netherlands, for example, we're building out what is our second largest tech hub in Europe because we’re finding it’s a great middle point between Asia and the US to connect our teams,” he said.

“We've grown from just London to where we now have a presence in London, Amsterdam, Vilnius, Lithuania, and we're going to start hiring in the UAE, in Dubai.”

Airwallex offers a virtual multi-currency business account with many of the same features as Tide of Starling Bank, such as invoicing, expense cards and international payment.

In the third quarter of 2021 Airwallex said it saw a 165 per cent year on year increase in revenue, and is now operating at an annualised revenue rate of over $100m.

Airwallex doesn’t charge for its business current account, multicurrency accounts, domestic or international payments, but does charge an FX margin of between 0.5–1 per cent.