UPDATED 00:12 EDT / JULY 04 2018

APPS

Airwallex gets an $80M boost to ease cross-border payments

Australian financial technology company Airwallex Pty Ltd. said Tuesday that it has closed on a massive $80 million funding round led by its backers Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Sequoia China.

The Melbourne-based firm’s Series B funding round is believed to be the second-largest-ever financing deal for an Australian startup. Other participants in the round include China’s Hillhouse, Horizons Ventures, which is a fund owned by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-Shing, as well as Central Capital Ventura and Square Peg.

Airwallex has now raised a total of $102 million, following a $13 million Series A round in May 2017 and an additional Series A+ round in December. Another of Airwallex’s key backers is Mastercard Inc., which uses the startup’s services to power its online personal payments product “Send.”

Airwallex provides a platform for handling cross-border payments that’s aimed at companies doing business in multiple nations using a variety of currencies, which do not have the resources to develop a payments system of their own. The company sets itself apart from traditional alternatives by using machine learning to identify the fastest and cheapest route through which a payment can reach its destination. This feature is complemented by a number of conveniences designed to streamline the other aspects of making an international transaction, including an built-in invoice creation tool and the ability to lock the exchange rate for each payment to prevent sudden currency shifts from impacting its client’s revenue.

Airwallex routes its clients’ overseas payments to their domestic bank using wholesale foreign exchange rates, and says it can process thousands of transactions per second.

The company has targeted China as a key market along with the wider Asian region, in addition to its home market of Australia. Company co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jack Zhang said the plan was to use the new funds to increase its focus on Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and forge new markets in Europe and the U.S. Airwallex will also look to expand its product range, officials said.

“Our end game is to provide the global network required for businesses to scale globally and to take advantage of the digital and online opportunities that exist when you’re transacting in multiple markets,” Airwallex co-founder and Chief Operating Office Lucy Liu said in a statement.

Image: jarmoluk/pixabay

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