Australian fintech Airwallex confirmed as latest fintech unicorn following Series C fundraising
Airwallex confirms unicorn status following a successful Series C fundraising round of $100m USD, valuing the company at over $1bn USD. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Australian fintech Airwallex has grown from an emerging start-up to a global challenger in the crossborder payment space, supporting a client base of internet titans including JD.com, Tencent and Ctrip, and large financial service companies including MasterCard. Top-tier investor DST Global led the Series C fundraising round, which closed at $100m USD. DST Global has been a primary investor across a number of global technology success stories, including Facebook, Airbnb and Spotify, and other fintech leaders, such as Robinhood. Alongside new investor DST Global, […]
PayPal now lets US users instantly transfer funds to bank accounts in seconds
PayPal, a longtime alternative to the direct use of cards, cash and bank transfers to make payments for goods online and in stores, is today adding a new feature to help it tap into a wider range of customers, such as gig economy workers and use cases — in competition not just against banks (and Zelle, a service that they back), but also younger upstarts like Stripe, Square and others chasing the same business. PayPal is launching Instant Transfer to bank, which will let those receiving money via PayPal instantly move that into their bank accounts to access as cash or however else they would like to use it. The […]
Up launches conversational payments
Up, the digital banking platform that went live in October 2018, has today launched conversational payments in app for customers. An Australia first, the experience will bring functionality on par with the United States, Europe and China, where Venmo, SquareCash and WeChat Pay have significantly altered and improved customers’ payment experience. Up’s Chief Imaginer, Anson Parker, says many Australians will not have experienced this approach to payments before. “Driven by Osko, payments are made in real time to friends and merchants – there’s nothing ‘pending’ here. And we’ve built this platform from the ground up to enable the conversational format that gives customers clarity on where money is going to […]
Assembly Payments rolls out Westpac partnership while announcing international expansion
Leading Australian fintech Assembly Payments has today announced the next stage in its partnership with Westpac and its international expansion. Assembly’s Westpac partnership has seen its unique in-store solution approved by POS companies serving more than 50% of Australian retailers. The solution, which supports Westpac’s Presto payment device, was highlighted by Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer in his result statement in November. The success of Assembly’s first partnership with a major financial institution has drawn global attention from similar finance behemoths, which the Assembly team is moving rapidly to capitalise on. “Australia was only the beginning,” co-founder and CEO Simon Lee said. “We have been working with a range of international […]
