Titans of finance including Baillie Gifford and T. Rowe Price have backed Airwallex in the startup’s US$320 million Series H, which values the Australian-born startup at $16 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Airwallex has raised US$320 million ($460 million) in a Series H, bringing its valuation to US$11 billion ($16 billion).
- Airwallex, founded in Melbourne but now headquartered in San Francisco, will use the funds to develop two AI tools it says will reshape finance.
- Australian VC Square Peg invested in Airwallex for a tenth time, while finance giants Baillie Gifford and T. Rowe Price also participated in the round.
- It is Airwallex’s third raise in 13 months. Last May it announced a US$300 million Series F that valued at US$6 billion, which it quickly followed with a US$330 million December Series G.
- Airwallex says its annualised revenue hit US$1.3 billion as of March, up 75 per cent year-on-year.
Big Number
$16 billion. That’s how much Airwallex is now worth after raising US$320 million in a Series H. Square Peg was the only Australian investor who participated in the round, which was led by New York VC Addition. Alongside several VCs in the US and London, the company was also backed by Amex’s venture arm and institutional funds like Baillie Gifford (£179 billion assets under management) and T. Rowe Price (US$1.89 trillion).
Even more striking than the size of Airwallex’s valuation is how fast it has grown. The company last May raised US$300 million at a US$6.2 billion valuation – quickly followed by a similar-sized round in December. The valuation announced today means Airwallex’s valuation has grown 77% in around a year.
Co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang’s 12 per cent stake in the company is now valued at US$1.3 billion.
Key context
Founded in Melbourne and now headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco, Airwallex made its name facilitating cross-border payments but now sells financial services including multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange, expense management and corporate cards.
That rise in valuation is roughly commensurate with Airwallex’s rising annualised revenue, which had grown 74 per cent year-on-year to hit US$1.3 billion in March. The raise also means that Airwallex’s long-anticipated IPO, which it last May said was on the horizon, has been kicked down the road again.
Airwallex perviously said it would spend US$1 billion between 2026 and 2029 expanding its US operations. Zhang said the Series H funds will be used to develop and scale two key AI products in T:0 and Airi.
T:0 is aimed at entrepreneurs founding companies in the AI era. The product seeks to automate bookkeeping, taxes, compliance, reporting and forecasting – its goal, in essence, is to be a digital CFO for new startups. Meanwhile Airi is an agentic wallet that will compete with Apple and Google Pay. It is designed to take advantage of agentic commerce – people instructing AI to make purchases on their behalf.
Crucial quote
“We didn’t know it at the time, but the foundation we spent ten years building turns out to be precisely the kind of infrastructure that the agentic economy needs,” Zhang wrote in a blog post. “Thanks to AI, the answer to ‘who gets to build a global company’ is anyone. We’re building the infrastructure to make that true.”
What to watch for
Though it’s enjoyed tremendous commercial success of late, Airwallex has come under scrutiny in the US for its ties to China. Silicon Valley investor Keith Rabois last year accused Airwallex of sending customers’ data to China, claims that this month prompted Republican senator Tom Cotton to call for an inquiry into the company. Zhang earlier this month rejected Rabois’ accusations as “totally unfounded conspiracy theories.”
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