2E or not 2E: Airwallex is reportedly hunting for another $200 million top up for its Series E

Melbourne unicorn Airwallex is reportedly looking to extend its Series E round for a second time, seeking another US$150 million (A$209m) as it contemplates a public listing.

Bloomberg reports the seven-year-old cross-border payments fintech is talking with several investors to close the round within months, citing unnamed insider sources.

It’s just seven months since Airwallex raised A$275 million in a series E. Then two months later, topped it up with an extra A$137 million it dubbed a “Series E1”. That November round valued the business at A$7.6 billion.

Since a $130 million Series D in March last year, the capital-ravenous business has raised $687 million in venture capital.

Its backers include US-based investment management company Lone Pine Capital, which led the series E and E1,G Squared, Tencent Holdings, Vetamer Capital Management, 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China, as well as the family VC funds of Atlassian’s co-founders, Grok Ventures, and Skip Capital.

If the new raise proceeds, Airwallex will have taken on board more than A$1.3 billion from investors.

The Bloomberg source said the company is looking to go public as soon as 2024, but added the caveat that “deliberations are ongoing and details of the fundraising and IPO could still change”.

Airwallex declined to comment on the report.

The business has been focused on scaling its presence in North America, UK, Europe as well as new markets such as the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia.

The fintech nearly doubled its headcount in 2021 and now employs close to 1,000 employees in more than 20 locations globally. Revenue grew nearly 150% in the first half of 2021, processing more than US$20 billion, with the client base quadrupling in size.

The business opened in the US late last year, as well as seeing its Singapore entity granted a Major Payment Institution License to expand its financial services offerings.