Airwallex hits $11 billion valuation with $320 million raise

Airwallex, the Australian payments startup that helps global companies move money across borders, raised $320 million in Series H funding at an $11 billion valuation, up 38% from its $8 billion valuation in December 2025.

"We believe this is the most consequential moment in the history of global finance, and we are building accordingly," Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, said.

The round was led by returning investor Addition, with participation from Baillie Gifford, QED Investors, T. Rowe Price, Hedosophia, Haun Ventures and Amex Ventures. Airwallex processes more than $250 billion in annual transactions and has reached a $1.3 billion revenue run-rate, though it is not yet profitable. The company serves 300,000 customers across 47 countries, with 61% of its business in Asia, 22% in the Americas and 17% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The capital will accelerate Airwallex's push into autonomous finance and agentic commerce — two areas where Zhang believes the company's decade of building payment licenses and local network integrations gives it an edge over rivals Stripe and Ramp. Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in payments last year, while Ramp handles $200 billion in annualized purchase volume. "What Airwallex has built is unusually hard to replicate," Lee Fixel of Addition said. "The winners will be the companies building on top of real financial infrastructure, not around it."

T:0 and Airi target the AI-native finance stack

Airwallex is launching two new products to compete in this space. T:0, an AI-native financial platform currently in private beta, automates bookkeeping, forecasting, taxes, compliance and reporting from a company's founding. Airi provides wallet infrastructure for agentic commerce — software agents that can transact on behalf of businesses. The company is also incubating Metal, a blockchain startup for tokenized financial products that could help Airwallex process stablecoin payments, which Zhang expects to make up 5% to 10% of global money movement within a decade.

Airwallex's strategy hinges on owning the full financial stack for globally operating businesses — bank accounts, payment processing, corporate cards, expense management and now AI-driven finance functions. That puts it in direct competition with Stripe, which launched its own payments blockchain called Tempo in March, and Ramp, whose board member Keith Rabois has publicly questioned Airwallex's data security practices. In December 2025, Rabois wrote on X that Airwallex was sending U.S. customer data to China, allegations Zhang called "patently false." Airwallex commissioned a security assessment from cybersecurity firm Coalfire that found its access restrictions "go beyond minimum expectations." Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton also wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in June calling for an investigation into Airwallex's "ties to Communist China," though payments industry executives interviewed by Forbes said the security claims lacked merit.

Zhang, who owns 12% of Airwallex, saw his stake rise to $1.3 billion with the new valuation. The company's path to profitability will depend on whether it can convert its $250 billion in transaction volume into sustainable margins while fending off Stripe and Ramp in payment processing, corporate cards and expense management. Airwallex's ability to offer a unified platform for global finance — rather than forcing customers to stitch together multiple point solutions — gives it a distinct pitch, but execution risk remains high as it expands into AI products and new markets simultaneously.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.