Salesforce, ANZ Venture Arms Back Australian Unicorn Airwallex

(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s Airwallex Cayman Ltd. raised $160 million from new investors including Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and the venture-capital arm of Salesforce.com to accelerate its expansion in global payments.

The fresh round from ANZ’s venture unit and Salesforce Ventures gives Airwallex a valuation of $1.8 billion, co-founder Lucy Liu said. Other participants included existing backers DST Global, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital Management Ltd. and Horizons Ventures Ltd.

“We saw some big growth in 2019 and we’re seeking to grow outside of the Asia-Pacific region,” Liu said. “Any new country we’re going into comes from following our existing clients as they extend their services.”

Airwallex will use the funds to bankroll growth in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S., as well as countries in Asia such as India, Liu said. The group, founded in a Melbourne coffee shop in 2015, helps clients settle payments when their users spend money overseas.

Customers include Tencent’s WeChat, JD.com Inc. and online learning platform 51Talk. Airwallex primarily works with business clients, including big e-commerce platforms that need to provide payment services for a large number of merchants. Its technology enables China-based retailers selling to places like the U.K. and Australia to receive payments in yuan within hours.

Airwallex had around 400 employees across 10 offices globally as of last month. It was valued at more than $1 billion in March 2019, based on a previous funding round.

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