Airwallex, a member of Australian fintech unicorn and RippleNet, raised $160 million in a funding round led by Australian ‘big four’ bank, ANZ. Also, San Francisco-based cloud software firm, Salesforce.

Moreover, it involves the round with current investors Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, DST Global and Horizons Ventures. Taking the sum of $362 million earned by the cross-border payment network as of April 16, to date.

Unicorn of Aussie fintech raises $160 million

In its next target markets, are Europe and the United States. Airwallex will steer the funds to extend its global footprint. Also, Last year, Airwallex opened offices in Tokyo, Bangalore, and Dubai.

Airwallex earned a $1 billion valuation in March 2019 classifying it as Australia’s second unicorn alongside Canva, a graphic design company. Moreover, there are currently three unicorns in Australia, with aerial imagery service, Nearmap, recently joining the list.

Ron Spector, ANZi Ventures executive director, said the bank is:

“looking forward to working further with the team to support their vision of building a next-generation digital payment platform for SMBs and enterprises globally.”

Airwallex developed out of a cafe operated by the company’s co-founders in the Docklands of Melbourne. After failing to find an efficient way to pay exporters for 2015 coffee cups in Hong Kong and China. And, then the pair partnered up with three Melbourne University friends to launch the startup.

RippleNet extends networks internationally

The growth of Airwallex comes amid RippleNet’s rising global expansion.

Ripple announced a collaboration with the Malaysian payment company, MoneyMatch, on April 15. The firm now provides cross-border remittances through RippleNet to more than 120 countries.

On April 9, Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s oldest financial institution, announced a collaboration with digital payments service, Azimo. To deliver near-instant foreign remittances using RippleNet.

Amid considerable enthusiasm about Ripple’s alliance with Intermex’s leading Mexican remittance network. A march earnings call disclosed that RippleNet would only be used by the company to support new markets.