Airwallex, an Australian cross-border business payments services provider, is expected to raise more than the planned amount from its Series E extension due to heavy inbound enquiries from institutional investors, according to three sources familiar with the situation.
The Hong Kong- and Melbourne-based company was reported in July to have held talks for a Series E extension, with participation from Visa [NYSE:V], according to Bloomberg.
Airwallex had originally hoped to bring in a limited number of investors with target size of about USD 150m to USD 200m in the Series E extension round, at a valuation of USD 5.5bn, the sources noted. The company has told a couple of investors that the fundraise remains open and may be upsized to about USD 300m on the back of positive feedback from potential investors, the sources said.
Some investors are eager to join the fundraise after Visa was said to participate, as they believe Airwallex could benefit from the potential tie-up, the sources said.
The extended fundraise is scheduled to close before the end of the year as some investors are now in the late stages of due diligence, they said.
Airwallex has pocketed USD 300m in Series E financing so far, most recently hitting a valuation of USD 5.5bn in a Series E1 round in November 2021, as announced.
Founded in 2015, Airwallex has raised USD 802m to date from investors including Tencent [HKG:0700], Sequoia, Mastercard [NYSE:MA], Hillhouse, Gobi Capital, and Lone Pine Capital, its website shows.
The company mainly provides domestic and international business accounts and operates an online platform for businesses to make and accept payments and manage multi-currency funds.
Airwallex employs over 1,000 staff across offices in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Lithuania, Greater China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, according to its website.
PingPong, a Chinese cross-border payment service unicorn, which is Airwallex’s biggest rival across Asia region, is considering a Hong Kong listing next year, as reported by Mergermarket.
Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corp. are running PingPong’s IPO, which has hoped to fetch a USD 3bn valuation upon listing, the same report shows.
Airwallex did not respond to requests for comment.
