Latest news with #Airwallex
Finextra
13 hours ago
- Business
- Finextra
Bolt and Airwallex collaborate on global payment system for drivers
Bolt, the global shared mobility platform, today announced a strategic partnership with leading global payments and financial platform, Airwallex, to build a new payments system for its drivers. 0 The new product will initially focus on digital wallets, before scaling out additional financial services in the future. This will be delivered by leveraging Airwallex's innovative global financial infrastructure to streamline payments, reduce transaction costs, and improve the speed and efficiency of fund transfers. These developments will support the millions of drivers and couriers using the Bolt platform to access good earnings opportunities in more than 50 countries, by automatically delivering payments in different currencies. These changes will be rolled out incrementally as part of a longer-term plan to embed financial services in the Bolt platform that enhance the driver experience. The partnership is currently live in several markets around the world, and over time will include key geographies in the Americas, EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) and APAC (Asia Pacific). Jüri Laur, Director of Product at Bolt, said: 'More than 4.5 million driver and courier partners use the Bolt platform and we have a responsibility to ensure they have a high-quality experience when doing so. Issuing seamless, real-time payments, which means they are paid accurately and on time, is a key part of this. Airwallex's global payment infrastructure is the perfect fit to help us optimise our financial operations and continue delivering best-in-class services to our users.' 'Our mission at Airwallex is to empower businesses with a modern financial infrastructure that simplifies global finance,' said Kai Wu, Chief Revenue Officer at Airwallex. 'We are excited to support Bolt in its expansion by providing a scalable, cost-effective, and reliable solution that meets the needs of its global driver and courier community, and its merchants.' The partnership marks a significant milestone for both companies as they continue to drive innovation in the global payments and mobility sectors. As Bolt scales its services across new and existing markets, Airwallex's financial technology will play a critical role in facilitating frictionless payments, ensuring Bolt remains at the forefront of the industry.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Fintech Sudden Thaw: What A Cluster Of Rounds Tells Us About Q3 IPOs
Only a few months ago venture capitalists were still calling 2024 a deep-freeze for fintech. Aggregate investment across the sector had fallen more than 70 percent from its pandemic peak, and CB Insights put total global fintech funding in the first quarter of 2025 at just US $10.3 billion—a far cry from the US $38 billion quarters of 2021. Yet in the 10 days between 13 and 23 May the tone flipped. Four mature private companies: Acrisure, Airwallex, Addepar and Bestow, each captured fresh cheques of nine figures or more, together drawing roughly US $2.75 billion. Taken as a set, the deals suggest that the exit window investors dismissed as 'shut' may be inching open just in time for an autumn listing season. The largest splash came first. On 20 May Michigan-based insurtech-cum-financial-services platform Acrisure secured US $2.1 billion in convertible preferred stock led by Bain Capital and Apollo Funds. This round pushed its valuation to US $32 billion, about 40 percent higher than its last mark in 2021. Management says part of the money refinances expensive legacy instruments; the rest funds M&A that will nudge Acrisure beyond brokerage into payroll, cybersecurity, and employee benefits. More revealing was the way CFO Lowell Singer described the raise: 'This gives us balance-sheet clarity ahead of any public-market option.' In banker-speak, that is the equivalent of pointing at the S-1 stack on the corner of the desk. Hours later, Airwallex—founded in Melbourne, headquartered in Singapore—announced a US $300 million Series F at a US $6.2 billion valuation. Half the round was secondary, handing early employees and angels long-sought liquidity, but the primary tranche brings the company's total funding to more than US $1.2 billion. Airwallex now processes payments in 60 countries, tracking toward US $1 billion in annualised revenue for 2025. Co-founder Jack Zhang called the up-round an 'important milestone on our path to the public markets,' adding that he wants at least two EBITDA-positive quarters before filing. A day later wealth-tech platform Addepar revealed a US $230 million Series G that values it at US $3.25 billion. More than half the proceeds go to a tender offer for long-time shareholders, house-cleaning that venture lawyers typically advise before a company flips its registration. Addepar now claims US $7 trillion of client assets on its analytics stack and insists it will be profitable in 2025. Finally, Dallas-based insurtech Bestow closed an oversubscribed US $120 million Series D co-led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Smith Point Capital, plus a US $50 million credit facility from TriplePoint. Bestow divested its consumer life-insurance carrier last year and now licenses underwriting software to incumbents, a pivot that tripled annual recurring revenue in 2024 and, according to CEO Melbourne O'Banion, turned the firm 'cash-flow neutral on a run-rate basis.' Four data points do not make a trend, but they do cluster around a narrative: late-stage investors have decided that fintech companies with real revenue, global footprints and near-term profitability can once again command large cheques at flat-to-up valuations. Several forces are converging. First, capital concentration. Limited partners are pressuring growth funds to deploy cash that has been sitting, fee-dragging, in drawdown notices. Instead of sprinkling Series B bets, those funds are writing fewer, larger tickets into businesses that can plausibly go public inside two years. Acrisure's raise alone absorbs pockets of dry powder that might otherwise have been scattered across a dozen smaller rounds. Second, profit visibility has become the gating item for every term sheet. All four firms either print black ink already or forecast it within 12 months. Airwallex's FX spread actually widens when the US dollar surges, providing a natural hedge against higher rates. Acrisure throws off cash from a traditional brokerage arm. Addepar skates on software-as-a-service margins. Investors no longer have to squint to see operating leverage. Third, secondary liquidity is back in fashion. Airwallex and Addepar earmarked roughly half of their rounds for early employee or seed-fund liquidity, a move that only makes sense if buyers believe they can recycle shares through an IPO at a premium within 18 to 24 months. Venture secondary specialists confirm that secondary prints have tightened from 60 percent discounts to low double-digits on marquee names. Finally, public-market tone has brightened, if only at the margins. On 8 May, Apollo-owned Aspen Insurance raised US $397 million in the largest US insurance IPO since 2022; shares popped 11 percent on day one. Investors looking for recession-resilient cash flow found it in sectoral plays like specialty insurance, and that is exactly the pitch Acrisure will make when it comes knocking. Bankers who worked on the recent rounds say file-ready documentation is already circulating. Acrisure has sounded out bulge-bracket banks for a dual-track that could see a confidential filing as early as July. Airwallex insiders point to October as the first window, contingent on two consecutive profitable quarters and the completion of licensing in Japan and the UAE. Addepar's tender offer paperwork explicitly notes that 'liquidity alternatives, including a potential initial public offering, may be pursued within a reasonable horizon.' If even two of the quartet launch roadshows, they will join a backlog of mature fintechs—Stripe, Rapyd, Nium, Klarna, Monzo, waiting for underwriting desks to reopen. Momentum breeds momentum: each successful float provides price discovery that the next issuer can cite, widening the aperture a little more. Private investors are once again paying forward for growth, though they remain more conservative than in 2021. At ≈5.5 × projected 2025 revenue, Airwallex's post-money multiple is richer than Wise, which trades around 3 × on the London Stock Exchange, but lower than the frothy nine-times prints of 2021. Acrisure's ≈12 × EBITDA multiple sits between listed brokerage Brown & Brown and pure-play insurtech Lemonade, which still languishes below book. Addepar's ≈11 × ARR is healthy but not outrageous next to Bloomberg's implied 15 × private-market valuation. Plenty. A move by the Federal Reserve or the Trump Administration that sends the ten-year Treasury back above five percent would sap risk appetite faster than any venture round can close. Regulatory curve-balls also loom. Acrisure's diversification into cyber and payments invites capital-adequacy scrutiny; Airwallex still has to complete multi-jurisdiction licensing across four continents before public investors will underwrite geopolitical risk. And an overcrowded IPO calendar can force valuation haircuts if buy-side funds lack bandwidth to diligence every deal. Clustered activity does not guarantee a full-blown spring. It does, however, mark the first time since late 2021 that growth-stage fintechs have raised multi-hundred-million-dollar rounds at higher valuations and funnelled meaningful cash to secondary sellers. That only happens when investors see a clear exit path. For founders, the signal is clear: if you can show real revenue growth, a short march to profitability and a plausible public-market comp, capital is once again on the table. For public-equity investors, a gentle warning: the pipeline is lining up. The window many declared shut is at least ajar, and if markets hold steady through the summer, Q3 could bring the busiest fintech IPO season in three years, one megadeal at a time. If Aspen's modest float was the starter pistol, the funding flurry of late May may prove to be the warm-up lap. Whether the race truly begins this autumn will depend on macro stability, but for the first time in a long while, fintech's next class of public companies is stepping up to the blocks.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Airwallex Raises $300M As It Expands In U.S. And Latin America, Now Valued At $6.2B With Clients Like Shein And Xero
Payments startup Airwallex Wednesday that it secured a new $300 million funding round, pushing its valuation to $6.2 billion. Founded in 2015, Airwallex has grown into a global player by helping businesses send, receive, and manage international payments at scale, Reuters reports. With a network spanning more than 150 countries, the company now reports over $1.2 billion in total funding, with investors of the latest round including major names like DST Global, Square Peg, Lone Pine Capital, and Blackbird. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. While fintech startups exploded in valuation post-pandemic, many are now facing investor fatigue. According to Reuters, persistently high interest rates, recession concerns, and geopolitical volatility have forced many firms to delay fundraising or accept lower terms. Airwallex has bucked that trend since its 11% increase in valuation from the previous round in 2022 is a signal of both operational strength and investor confidence. The company now counts industry giants like Shein, Qantas, and Xero among its client base, Reuters says. CEO Jack Zhang told Reuters that more than 70% of the company's net revenue now comes from online payment processing and spend management, rather than just cross-border infrastructure. The diversification strategy appears to be paying off. Zhang emphasized in the company's announcement that Airwallex is no longer just a cross-border payments solution, but a broader financial operating system for modern businesses. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — 'The global financial system wasn't built for today's borderless economy,' Zhang said. 'Too many businesses are held back by legacy infrastructure that's slow, costly, and fragmented. At Airwallex, we're building a new foundation for the global economy – one that's fast, seamless, and built for scale. This investment marks a major milestone in our journey to redefine global banking, and to empower businesses everywhere to grow without limits.' Airwallex is also doubling down on global expansion. The company said it opened its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco last year and recently opened new offices in New York, Toronto, and Paris. According to Reuters, the startup is joining other payment providers competing with major players like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Citigroup (NYSE:C). In addition to its growing presence in North America, Airwallex is targeting Japan, South Korea, and Latin America as core areas for future growth. With a global headquarters now based in Singapore, the company is positioning itself as a truly borderless platform for modern business finance, Reuters said it developed a proprietary global infrastructure designed to modernize how businesses move money across borders. By building direct connections to local clearing systems and card networks, the company has created a faster, more efficient alternative to traditional banking rails. Most of the company's transactions are completed within hours, with a majority processed instantly. With tools that span global business accounts, FX, spend management, and embedded finance APIs, Airwallex is positioning itself as the operating system for modern businesses. With the new funding, Airwallex said in its funding announcement that it is now preparing for its next phase: deeper integration, bigger partnerships, and an even broader global footprint. Read Next: Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:.Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Airwallex Raises $300M As It Expands In U.S. And Latin America, Now Valued At $6.2B With Clients Like Shein And Xero originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO of $6 billion payments company Airwallex says he made 3 mistakes in the early days of the company
Airwallex's CEO, Jack Zhang, detailed early mistakes in the startup's hiring and expansion strategy. Zhang said he regrets not outsourcing and that he expanded too fast and neglected company culture. Airwallex recently raised $300 million, valuing the fintech firm at $6.2 billion. The CEO of Tencent and Sequoia-backed payments startup Airwallex said that if he had to start over, there are three things he would do differently. Jack Zhang said his mistakes include not outsourcing to a good recruiter in the early days, expanding overseas too quickly, and not prioritizing company culture. The Airwallex cofounder and CEO spoke on an episode of the "20VC" podcast aired on Monday. "I hired the first 100 people in Airwallex by myself on LinkedIn," Zhang said of his first mistake. "Obviously, there's a lot of benefit of doing that, but I could have hired a good recruiter just to help me to do the outreach and then give them access to my LinkedIn password." Zhang cofounded Airwallex with four friends in Melbourne in 2015. The Singapore-based fintech company provides cross-border payments and financial services through its banking network and protocols that allow different software components to communicate with each other. Last week, the company announced that it raised $300 million in a series F funding round at a valuation of $6.2 billion. Zhang said that his second mistake was that Airwallex overinvested in international expansion without having a product-market fit. He said the company got lucky, but doing this carried a lot of risk. The CEO said the last thing he would change would be investing in company culture early. "In the early first four, five years, we hired a lot of people with a lot of great experience — they're from a bank, they're from Citibank, they've built a Swift network before," he said. "They join, they're telling you, 'you guys know nothing, what you're going to do doesn't work.' None of those people worked." He said that experience matters less than other characteristics. "We should just have hired those curious, determined, optimistic people from early on," Zhang said. "But we didn't, so we had to fire all of them," he added, speaking of his challenging early hires. Zhang is among tech CEOs who have looked back on their companies' early days and said they waited too long before delegating. Earlier this month, Luis von Ahn, the cofounder and CEO of language-learning app Duolingo, said that he micromanaged 50 employees in the early days of the company. He said he only learned to spread the responsibility once it became "impossible" to manage that many people. "At this point, I also have learned that most of my job is culture carrier, mascot, and just making some of the kind of tough philosophical decisions," von Ahn said in a talk at Stanford University. "Two of my executive team are sitting here — head of people and head of finance. I am neither good at those things nor do I get energy from them, so they have all the freedom in the world," he said. Microsoft's former CEO, Bill Gates, is also outspoken about delegation and how he learned that he could not be involved with every project or team member as the company grew. "I had always been the taskmaster, the one who incessantly worried about losing our lead, and fearing that if we weren't careful, we'd be sunk," Gates wrote in his memoir. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The CEO of $6 billion payments company Airwallex says he made 3 mistakes in the early days of the company
Jack Zhang said his mistakes include not outsourcing to a good recruiter in the early days, expanding overseas too quickly, and not prioritizing company culture. The Airwallex cofounder and CEO spoke on an episode of the "20VC" podcast aired on Monday. "I hired the first 100 people in Airwallex by myself on LinkedIn," Zhang said of his first mistake. "Obviously, there's a lot of benefit of doing that, but I could have hired a good recruiter just to help me to do the outreach and then give them access to my LinkedIn password." Zhang cofounded Airwallex with four friends in Melbourne in 2015. The Singapore-based fintech company provides cross-border payments and financial services through its banking network and protocols that allow different software components to communicate with each other. Last week, the company announced that it raised $300 million in a series F funding round at a valuation of $6.2 billion. Zhang said that his second mistake was that Airwallex overinvested in international expansion without having a product-market fit. He said the company got lucky, but doing this carried a lot of risk. The CEO said the last thing he would change would be investing in company culture early. "In the early first four, five years, we hired a lot of people with a lot of great experience — they're from a bank, they're from Citibank, they've built a Swift network before," he said. "They join, they're telling you, 'you guys know nothing, what you're going to do doesn't work.' None of those people worked." He said that experience matters less than other characteristics. "We should just have hired those curious, determined, optimistic people from early on," Zhang said. "But we didn't, so we had to fire all of them," he added, speaking of his challenging early hires. Zhang is among tech CEOs who have looked back on their companies' early days and said they waited too long before delegating. Earlier this month, Luis von Ahn, the cofounder and CEO of language-learning app Duolingo, said that he micromanaged 50 employees in the early days of the company. He said he only learned to spread the responsibility once it became "impossible" to manage that many people. "At this point, I also have learned that most of my job is culture carrier, mascot, and just making some of the kind of tough philosophical decisions," von Ahn said in a talk at Stanford University. "Two of my executive team are sitting here — head of people and head of finance. I am neither good at those things nor do I get energy from them, so they have all the freedom in the world," he said. Microsoft's former CEO, Bill Gates, is also outspoken about delegation and how he learned that he could not be involved with every project or team member as the company grew.
