The latest fundraising round values the company at AUD$9.6 billion, and is the first time Blackbird is included in the cap table.
It has now raised more than a billion dollars in VC capital, and is on track to hit a billion in annual revenue this year.
Melbourne-founded decacorn Airwallex has closed its Series F round with investment from Blackbird, Square Peg, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital and Visa Ventures.
Half of the $465 million fundraise is a secondary round, allowing early investors in the decacorn founded a decade ago, to realise a return.
“It takes the pressure off having to find acquirers or rush to list companies,” Blackbird general partner Michael Tolo tells Forbes Australia exclusively.
This is the first time Blackbird has been a part of an Airwallex fundraise. The exact amount of Blackbird’s participation is not known, but Tolo says it is significant and ‘corrects previous mistakes’ the VC has made in not investing in the company.
The secondary nature of the round is unique and was also recently undertaken by fellow Australian decacorn Canva.
“Secondary transactions enable companies to continue executing on their plans in the private markets as their earliest investors come to the end of their investment cycle (such as a VC fund reaching the end of its fund life).”
“This is a sizeable investment from our Follow-On Fund that we feel reflects the maturity of the company and the opportunity for Blackbird to invest at this time,” says Tolo.
“While our Follow-on Funds typically back existing portfolio companies, we occasionally make first-time investments into late-stage growth businesses where we have deep conviction and a longstanding relationship with the founders.”
Airwallex was founded by Jacob Dai, Jack Zhang, Lucy Liu, Max Li, and Ki Lok Wong in 2015 to disrupt the cumbersome and inefficient process of making international B2B payments.
It has grown exponentially over the last decade and provided businesses with an alternative to using the SWIFT international payments system that was introduced in the 1970s.
Airwallex became a unicorn in 2019 when DST led its USD$100m Series C round. Six years later, Airwallex is now a decacorn with unrelenting ambitions.
“Our mission is to build a financial ecosystem that moves as freely as the internet – connecting people and businesses around the world,” Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang tells Forbes Australia. “While the business has grown and matured over the past nine years our purpose has only strengthened.”
That strength, and the opportunity to continue to scale globally, is what motivated Blackbird to join the cap table.
“We saw an attractive entry point that coincided with Airwallex demonstrating strong product-market fit in the UK and US, which sets the foundation for wider expansion through the Americas and Europe,” says Tolo.
The Series F was led by Square Peg, founded by Paul Bassat.
“From its roots in Melbourne, Airwallex is evolving into a generational global company,” says Bassat. “Its product offering meets critical needs for a large and growing cohort of global-first, digital-first companies that, in many cases, have complex financial services needs.”
Bassat said he believes the decacorn is still early in its journey. Zhang agrees, noting Airwallex is continuing to innovate and disrupt financial services.
“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,” says Zhang.
“This investment marks a major milestone in our journey to redefine global finance, and to empower businesses everywhere to grow without limits.”
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