Financial technology firm Airwallex has secured $80m funding to advance the production of its smart cross-border payment technology.
Image: Airwallex has secured funding to advance production of its smart cross-border payment technology. Photo: courtesy of renjith Krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The company has completed series B fundraising from existing series A investors Tencent and Sequoia, as well as China-based Hillhouse, Hong Kong’ Sir Ka-Shing Li’s Horizons Ventures, Indonesia’s Central Capital Ventura (BCA) and Australia’s Square Peg.
The total fundraising of Airwallex has now reached $102m.
Airwallex will use the new funding to accelerate the production of the smart and seamless cross-border payment technology, which is effectively envisaging global payments.
Airwallex COO and co-founder Lucy Liu said: “Airwallex has identified that businesses in all corners of the world are experiencing similar challenges as the pace and connectivity of a digitalised global economy continues to gain momentum.”
Airwallex, which has significant presence in China, will now also use the investment to expand its operations in APAC, Europe and North America.
With established entities in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Shanghai, the Airwallex is now focusing on extending to North America and Canada.
Airwallex said that Tencent and Sequoia China showed a confidence in the firm’s capacity and again participated in the firm’s fundraising program.
Sequoia China founding and managing partner Neil Shen said: “As the pace and connectivity of the digitalized global economy continues to rapidly accelerate, the need to focus on foreign exchange and payments has become critically important for large corporates and SMEs.”
Airwallex will use major portion of funding to advance financial inclusion for SMEs in the Hong Kong market, in addition to applying for a virtual banking licence to expand fintech ecosystem across the globe.
Despite of Brexit, the funding will also support the company to expand its operations in the UK.
Airwallex, which offers integrated solutions for cross-border payments, facilitates international money transfers through a combination of payment collection, foreign exchange and local payment distribution.