Chinese technology investment giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has led a US$13 million series A round in Airwallex, an Australia-based cross-border payment start-up.
A number of investors, including Mastercard Inc. and Sequoia Capital China, also participated in the round. It is the first investment in an Australian start-up for Tencent and Sequoia Capital China.
Airwallex has also formed a partnership with Tencent to lower the cost of WeChat Pay's international payment services.
"Foreign exchange transactions pose a real challenge for businesses that operate across borders, and Airwallex’s solution has seriously impressed us in its ability to close the gap and allow companies to financially access markets that may have previously been out of reach,” said Steven Ji, a partner at Sequoia Capital China.
Founded in 2015, Airwallex provides international payment solutions for companies in over 100 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Its platform is powered by sophisticated foreign exchange and payment engines, and a transparent pricing model to avoid inflated margins and minimize market risk. It currently has offices in Melbourne, Shanghai, Hong Kong and London.
The company claims it can support thousands of transactions per second and provide a more cost-effective alternative to existing payment networks.
Airwallex previously raised a pre-series A round worth US$3 million in early 2016 led by Gobi Partners, and plans to use the latest proceeds to support the release of Airwallex’s suite of APIs that will allow businesses to process large-scale international payments.