Fintech Funding Holds Strong As Airwallex Lands $300M 

Investors are feeling pretty good about fintech these days.

The latest indicator: Business payments platform Airwallex announced Wednesday that it closed on $300 million at a $6.2 billion valuation. The financing includes $150 million in Series F funding and another $150 million for secondary share purchases.

The investment comes amid a comparatively busy period for fintech investment and exits. Last Wednesday, trading platform eToro made its Nasdaq debut, with shares surging in early trading. Also last week, online banking provider Chime filed to go public with a prospectus showing sharply rising revenue.

As for startup financing, Crunchbase data shows that investment for U.S. companies in financial services industry categories has held up at robust levels in recent quarters. While Q2 is only a little more than halfway over, funding for this period already looks especially strong.

This quarter’s largest financing — $575 million — went to Plaid, a provider of tools to connect user bank accounts to fintech apps. The San Francisco-based company’s plan for the cash includes a tender offer to buy employee shares.

Next up was Rippling, a payroll and HR software unicorn that snagged $450 million in Series G financing this month. In addition, Addepar, a platform for managing investments, locked up $230 million of Series G funding last week.

IPO action could pick up soon, too, as buy now, pay later platform Klarna filed an amended prospectus earlier today. That’s a good sign for the likelihood of an impending offering. Stockholm-based Klarna originally filed publicly for an IPO in March, but delayed plans for a debut when markets took a downward turn.

Airwallex, meanwhile, is also scaling up. The company said it expects to hit $1 billion in annual run rate revenue this year, with recent revenue up 90% year over year.

Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 2015, and currently headquartered in San Francisco, Airwallex has raised over $1 billion in equity funding to date. Investors in the latest financing include Square Peg Capital, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Blackbird Ventures, Airtree Ventures, Salesforce Ventures 1, and Visa Ventures.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman