--- title: "Airwallex funding rounds and investors" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/airwallex-pty-ltd/funding-and-investors/ as_of: 2026-10-17 keywords: ["Airwallex Pty Ltd","ACN 609 653 312","Airwallex (Cayman) Limited","Airwallex Capital Pty Ltd","Airwallex SVF Pty Ltd","Airwallex Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd","AFSL 487221","AUSTRAC external audit","designated business group","Jack Zhang","Lucy Liu","Airwallex (UK) Limited","Airwallex Global Limited","AWX Brasil Instituição de Pagamento","Tencent","HongShan","Square Peg","cross-border payments","electronic money institution","Series H"] --- # Airwallex funding rounds and investors **Question.** Who has invested in Airwallex, in which rounds, and what is known about the size of their stakes? **Answer.** After seed money from co-founder Lucy Liu in 2015, Airwallex has announced or been reported to raise rounds ranging from a US$3 million pre-Series A in 2016 to US$320 million of Series H funding at an US$11 billion valuation in June 2026. Tencent led the 2017 Series A and, with Sequoia China (now HongShan), the 2018 Series B; DST Global, Lone Pine Capital and Addition led later rounds. Holdings are not public: a Robinhood fund's report filed with the SEC records Series G preferred shares in Airwallex (Cayman) Limited, while the stakes of Jack Zhang, Square Peg and the Chinese investors rest on reported figures. ## Seed to Series D, 2015–2020 - Analysis: According to a US business magazine, co-founder Lucy Liu provided Airwallex's initial US$1 million of seed funding in 2015, after which the start-up raised a further US$3 million from small venture firms; another business magazine, in a corrected account of 2026, reports that Liu offered US$2 million and that Jack Zhang accepted US$1 million. Both accounts come from interviews, and no filing records the seed investment or the shares it bought. On 5 July 2016 Airwallex announced a US$3 million pre-Series A round led by the Shanghai-based Gobi Partners, with Gravity VC and the angel investors Huashan Capital One. A technology news site reported on 1 May 2017 that the Melbourne start-up had closed a US$13 million Series A round led by Tencent, its first investment in an Australian start-up, with Sequoia China, MasterCard and Gobi taking part; the start-up's own announcement is not among the retained records and the issuing company is not named. [src-024] [src-084] [src-037] [src-030] - Analysis: A Singapore business newspaper reported in July 2018 that Tencent and Sequoia China led an US$80 million Series B round, joined by Hillhouse, Horizons Ventures, Central Capital Ventura and Square Peg, which had also taken part in a US$6 million Series A+ round in December 2017; total funding reached US$102 million, according to the company's statement as the newspaper reported it, which names neither the issuing company nor the investors' stakes. In March 2019 a technology news site reported, from the company's announcement, a US$100 million Series C round led by DST Global, with Sequoia China, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Gobi Partners, Horizons Ventures and Square Peg returning; the company then disclosed a valuation for the first time, above US$1 billion. The same site reported in April 2020 a US$160 million Series D round that added ANZi Ventures, the investment arm of ANZ Bank, and Salesforce Ventures to returning investors, bringing total funding to US$360 million, again from the company's announcement; a later report mentions a March 2021 extension without its size or investors. None of these reports states an investor's stake. [src-031] [src-032] [src-033] [src-034] ## Series E to Series H, 2021–2026 - Analysis: According to two trade reports of the company's announcements, in September 2021 Airwallex raised US$200 million in a Series E round at a US$4 billion valuation, led by Lone Pine Capital, with the new investors G Squared and Vetamer Capital and the existing investors 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. In November 2021 Lone Pine led a further US$100 million at a US$5.5 billion valuation, taking total funding to US$802 million; no investor's stake is stated. A news agency, relaying the company's statement, reported in October 2022 a US$100 million extension at an unchanged valuation from existing investors including Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China and Lone Pine, joined by the Australian superannuation fund HostPlus and a North American pension fund that is not named. On 21 May 2025 Airwallex announced a US$300 million Series F round at a US$6.2 billion valuation, including US$150 million of secondary share transfers, with Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Blackbird, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures and several Australian pension funds, and Visa Ventures as a strategic investor. [src-034] [src-036] [src-035] [src-026] - Analysis: On 8 December 2025 Airwallex announced a US$330 million Series G round valuing it at US$8 billion, led by Addition with T. Rowe Price, Activant, Lingotto, Robinhood Ventures and TIAA Ventures. Robinhood Ventures Fund I's certified shareholder report filed with the SEC lists, as of 31 March 2026, 1,173,709 shares of Series G preferred stock of Airwallex (Cayman) Limited acquired on 21 November 2025, at a cost and fair value of US$25,000,002. In June 2026 Airwallex announced US$320 million of Series H funding at an US$11 billion valuation, led by Addition, with Baillie Gifford, Hummingbird, QED Investors, T. Rowe Price, Hedosophia, Haun Ventures, Washington University in St. Louis and Amex Ventures. A personal-finance magazine counted seven rounds and more than US$1.5 billion of venture capital over ten years, including from AirTree, Blackbird and Square Peg; counts differ depending on how extensions are treated. A venture database also lists Greenoaks Capital Partners, Grok Ventures and Skip Capital as Series D investors and Hermitage Capital in the Series E round, without stakes or dates, and an Australian financial newspaper wrote in 2023 that Grok Ventures, the investment company of the Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, had invested. No announcement in the retained records names these four investors. [src-027] [src-018] [src-024] [src-076] [src-054] [src-105] ## Reported stakes - Analysis: No share register of Airwallex (Cayman) Limited is public or among the retained records, so the stakes below are reported figures. A US business magazine reported in June 2026 that Jack Zhang owns 12 per cent of Airwallex, a stake it valued at US$1.3 billion after the US$11 billion round. An Australian newspaper reported in January 2026 that Square Peg Capital accounts for the largest stake, without giving its size, that Blackbird Ventures and Airtree Ventures also hold shares and that the major Chinese backers include Tencent and HongShan Capital; in April 2026 it named Square Peg, Blackbird, AirTree and Tencent as the largest backers. In 2021 Square Peg's co-founder Paul Bassat told the newspaper the firm had been a shareholder since 2017 without a board seat. Senator Tom Cotton's June 2026 letter says Tencent and HongShan reportedly hold a combined stake of more than 20 per cent, while Zhang has said Tencent holds a passive stake of less than 10 per cent and does not have a board seat, a statement a business magazine reports from the company's published response; neither figure comes from a share register. An Australian business magazine wrote in 2025 that Airwallex does not comment on the shareholdings of investors or founders, relaying Liu's remark in another press report that she did not know which investor had the largest stake but that no investor had an outsized one. [src-024] [src-074] [src-072] [src-071] [src-084] [src-086] [src-041] ## The founders' fund - Analysis: On 28 July 2021 Airwallex announced Capital 49, a venture capital fund set up by its founders in cooperation with the company, which aimed to raise US$200 million from the founders and other investors for companies in Airwallex's ecosystem; Jack Zhang was named its founder, and the fund had made two fintech investments. The announcement does not identify the fund's legal entity or jurisdiction. [src-053] ## Sources - [src-024] Media source · src-024 - [src-084] Media source · src-084 - [src-037] Company statement source · src-037 - [src-030] Media source · src-030 - [src-031] Media source · src-031 - [src-032] Media source · src-032 - [src-033] Media source · src-033 - [src-034] Media source · src-034 - [src-036] Media source · src-036 - [src-035] Media source · src-035 - [src-026] Company statement source · src-026 - [src-027] Company statement source · src-027 - [src-018] Robinhood Ventures Fund I, Form N-CSR certified shareholder report for the period ended 31 March 2026, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2026-03-31 - [src-076] Media source · src-076 - [src-054] Research source · src-054 - [src-105] Media source · src-105 - [src-074] Media source · src-074 - [src-072] Media source · src-072 - [src-071] Media source · src-071 - [src-086] Senator Tom Cotton press release and letter to Treasury Secretary Bessent on Airwallex, Office of U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, 2026-06-17 - [src-041] Media source · src-041 - [src-053] Company statement source · src-053