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Scoop: Airwallex is now valued at $12 billion

3 hours ago

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Payments firm Airwallex has raised new funding at around a $12 billion valuation led by Lee Fixel's Addition, Axios has learned.

Driving the news: The new round marks a 50% increase over its $8 billion valuation late last year, also led by Addition.

Airwallex also is said to have hit the $1.5 billion ARR mark, versus $1 billion last October, with talk of hitting $2 billion by year-end. Its U.S. unit processes around $100 billion for over 40,000 businesses.
The company is expected to seek a U.K. banking license, mirroring the Revolut strategy.

The big picture: Airwallex competes with financial firms from Stripe to Citi, and is seeking to become a business superapp.

It began by focusing on cross-border transactions, but since has added spend spend management, billing, and business accounting.

The intrigue: The Australia-founded company has faced some scrutiny for its China operations, including from a VC investor in rival Ramp.

The Financial Times today reported that Airwallex has relocated some of its Hong Kong and Shanghai staff, with a company spokesperson said was in keeping with an executive order restricting the bulk transfer of sensitive data to China drove the decision — adding that the company remains active in both cities.
Airwallex is now officially headquartered in San Francisco, and declined comment for this story.

The bottom line: Speculation around an IPO is only getting louder, although CEO Jack Zhang has said he has no near-term plans to go public.