Airwallex, a fintech unicorn headquartered in Hong Kong backed by the likes of Tencent and Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures, is seeking to raise as much as $150 million, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
The seven-year-old startup already raised a total of $400 million since March last year from investors across three funding rounds. San Francisco-based Greenoaks led a $100 million funding round in March 2021, which was followed by a $200 million round led by Lone Pine Capital in Septemberand another $100 million in November.
A company spokesperson declined to confirm the fundraising effort. The November funding round valued Airwallex, which achieved unicorn status in 2019, at $5.5 billion.
Airwallex has raised a total of $802 million since its founding in 2015. Its other investors include Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse, Gobi Partners, Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global, 1835i Ventures (formerly Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s innovation unit) and Central Capital Ventura, the venture capital arm of Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia.
CEO Jack Zhang has previously said the $100 million raised in November would go toward M&A opportunities that accelerate Airwallex’s global expansion. Business had grown in the third quarter of 2021 around the Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East while showing “early momentum” in the United States, Airwallex said last year. Airwallex had launched “virtual employee cards” in Hong Kong and gotten a start in Southeast Asia.
Zhang cofounded Airwallex with Xijing Dai, Max Li and Lucy Liu, who made the 2020 Power Businesswomen list and 30 Under 30 Asia in 2017.
he Airwallex platform is set up to help businesses manage online payments and payouts without using the traditional financial system. Airwallex can do cross-border payments in about 30 currencies across 130 countries. It has more than 1,000 employees and 19 locations globally.