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Summary
- A well-known Australian fintech Company, Airwallex raised a further US$40 million (A$56 million) in an extended fundraising round.
- Co-founder of Atlassian, Scott Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson have decided to invest in the successful start-up, alongside Square Peg, an existing shareholder.
- Airwallex’s co-founders Lucy Liu and Jack Zhang believe it is just the beginning, as the firm witnessed a 50% growth in demand since the pandemic started.
- The Aussie unicorn intends to expand in the US, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa in the future.
- What was first a small café in Melbourne is now an uber-successful fintech Company that wants to hire even more staff to support the Company’s innovative financial transactions.
The highly-rated Australian fintech Company Airwallex has raised another US$40 million (A$56 million) via an extended round of funding, adding more capital to its fundraised money which is now estimated at around A$400 million in total, since the unicorn’s launch in 2015.
The uber-successful start-up Company that specialises in providing cheap international transactions for businesses has recently joined forces with Scott Farquhar, Atlassian’s co-founder.
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Mr Farquhar approved the funding to Airwallex, as he recognised the potential that the fintech Company showed since the start of the pandemic.
After blending in with the last fundraising amount, Airwallex’s worth was estimated at ~A$2.5 billion in April of this year, shortly after the Series D fundraising was over.
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Who are the new investors?
Together with his wife Kim Jackson, Mr Farquhar invested in the Company via Skip Capital, their private investment vehicle, and the existing investor Square Peg, a venture capital fund. Square Peg has already been a known investor for the fintech firm.
Airwallex has been experiencing a high demand for its services from industries that are engaged with overseas companies. The fintech company is only expected to grow and get recognised within the wider population across the globe.
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Optimistic outline
CEO and co-founder of Airwallex, Jack Zhang has stated that the fintech business will continue to hire more people because of the ongoing rise of demand, with a focus on the Melbourne office. Mr Zhang also said that Airwallex reached their funding goal during Series D round in April, so any more funding they get is even better than what was initially expected.
Mr Zhang also believes that the new funds will help to achieve the dream behind Airwallex – becoming one of the most widely-used financial providers for cheap and effective international transactions.
Another Airwallex co-founder, Lucy Liu, added that since April, Airwallex had been a target for many influential investors, hence why the Company decided to prolong the fund rounds.
As Airwallex’s investors share a similar vision like themselves, all collaborations are expected to be going in an efficient matter, specifically with Skip Capital.
Future expansions
2021 might turn out to be the best year for Airwallex.
The fintech firm has some significant expansions in mind. It already offers fast payments to countries around the globe from 10 international offices.
Airwallex has already expanded to the Asia-Pacific and European regions but now has the biggest expansion in mind – entering the US.
Expanding to the US is not as easy as it may seem, because the service can only be completed if the Company received the licence for all the 50 states of the US. The Airwallex’s leaders are expecting to get hold of those licences by the first financial quarter in 2021.
Apart from the US, Airwallex is trying to present their services to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
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Futuristic way of doing finance
As the key definition of the term ‘fintech’ says, they provide innovative and outstanding services for financial transactions. Airwallex had been widely recognised as one of the best ‘Top 100’ fintech companies in the world because of its futuristic strategy about how it deals with overseas transactions.
Moreover, one of its bigger projects is based in the UK, where the Company introduced card payments through Airwallex. A similar project is anticipated to be launched in Australia, where the Company has its main office.
Source: Kalkine Image
The fintech has recognised the online payment trend before its launch, so it comes as no surprise that its business had a 50% growth in demand for services it provides. Digital payments will get even more popular as most of the people have been spending more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Airwallex reported the biggest increase in business in logistics, e-commerce, tech, and digital sectors, stating a 100% boost in net revenue in Q3 in 2020, compared to Q2.
Not many companies wanted to risk hiring more staff during the pandemic, but Airwallex was not one of them. On the contrary, it created more than 140 job positions and is still planning on hiring more than 100 people across international offices. However, the main office in Melbourne will remain a priority for the Company.
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Interesting history
Airwallex started as a small cafe in metropolitan Melbourne – Mr Zhang, Ms Liu, Max Li, Xijing Dai and Ki-lok Wong named it ‘Tikk & Co’. The café had difficulties with purchasing coffee cups and labels, so the founders decided to start a business that would provide cheap fees for international transactions to other small businesses.
Now, the business is the best-performing fintech Company in Australia and has managed to take a spot in ‘Top 50’ list of emerging fintech firms from the whole world.
After it announced promising partnerships with Visa and Xero, Airwallex is expected to reach a wider audience, especially if it fulfils the criteria for joining the American market.
