Melbourne-based foreign-exchange transfer company Airwallex has raised $200 million in new capital that will be spent on a planned expansion into the U.S. next year where it will compete with companies like digital payments company Stripe.
Participants in Airwallex's funding included venture capital company Skip Capital and Square Peg. Interest in the company has been high - particularly after it reported revenue growth throughout the pandemic. The health and economic crisis has resulted in an accelerated shift from traditional banking to digital payments.
The funding is just the latest of several recapitalizations and public listings of financial technology companies worldwide. This includes listings such as the Hong Kong initial public offering of Alibaba's Ant Group, JD Digits in Shanghai and Lufax in New York.
"Businesses are now racing to embrace digital transformation at an unprecedented rate. We are more certain than ever that the digital economy is going to be the center of the world's economic structure," Airwallex' chief executive officer and joint founder Jack Zang said.
Airwallex originally wanted to raise up to $160 million through the round that was open to all new and existing investors. But, because of demand the company extended the round and raised its target. After the fundraising Airwallex's valuation is an estimated $1.8 billion.
As part of its expansion into the U.S. Airwallex said it had established a temporary base there, has a staff and established partnerships with U.S. banks. The company intended to be based in San Francisco.
Apart from the U.S. Airwallex will expand into markets in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. The company is seeking licenses in Malaysia and Japan.
"Next year will be our biggest yet," Zhang said. "We'll be using the funds raised to expand our global payment coverage so that we become one of the widest-reaching international payments providers in the world.
"We've been busy laying the groundwork for our entry to the U.S. market, which involves obtaining licenses from all 50 states. We're making good progress here and aim to secure all 50 licenses by the first quarter of 2021.
"Also we have just launched card payment acceptance in the UK, and so one of our key priorities is to introduce this to other markets next year, including Australia."
