Airwallex has locked in $320 million in Series H funding, pushing the Australian-born, San Francisco-based payments platform to an eye-catching $11 billion valuation. The company says the fresh capital will speed up its plan to unleash AI "agents" on back-office work, from bookkeeping and forecasting to paying the bills.
The round was led by Addition and pulled in a mix of returning and new backers, including Baillie Gifford, Hummingbird, QED Investors, T. Rowe Price, Washington University in St. Louis and Amex Ventures, according to CNBC. The $11 billion price tag is a sharp jump from the roughly $8 billion valuation Airwallex carried late last year, the outlet notes.
Airwallex’s AI Bet: T:0 and Airi
Alongside the funding news, Airwallex rolled out two new AI-focused products. First up is T:0, an AI-native finance platform pitched as a way to automate bookkeeping, forecasting, taxes, compliance and reporting. Then there is Airi, a consumer-facing, agentic wallet meant to handle delegated payments and one-click checkout. The Business Times reports that T:0 is currently in private beta, while Airi is expected to roll out delegated payment tools and multi-currency wallet features over time.
In a company release, Airwallex said it hit $1.3 billion in annualized revenue in March 2026, representing roughly 74 percent year-over-year growth, and more than doubled annualized transaction volume to around $287 billion. The release also notes that over 90 percent of revenue now comes from customers using multiple Airwallex products and that the firm holds more than 85 licenses across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, according to the National Law Review.
Data Residency Fight and Political Heat
The big financing arrives as Airwallex continues to fend off questions about its ties to China. Investor Keith Rabois recently accused the company on X of operating a Chinese backdoor into sensitive American data, a claim that ricocheted through tech and policy circles. Airwallex has denied the allegations, and CEO Jack Zhang labeled them "wild and totally unfounded conspiracy theories," according to CNBC.
Co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, the company says it plans to use the new funds to expand its regulated payments infrastructure into additional markets and to bulk up AI-native engineering and product teams. Airwallex’s ambition to be IPO-ready has been flagged in regional reporting as it scales across Asia and the United States, and Hoodline previously tracked its local footprint when the firm bought SF billing startup OpenPay.
For San Francisco readers watching the AI gold rush from close range, the raise highlights how fast payments infrastructure players are pivoting toward AI-driven products while trying to reassure customers about where their data actually lives. The near-term tells to watch: whether T:0 moves beyond private beta on schedule and how Airi performs in real-world merchant tests, signals that will show if the investor bet on "agentic commerce" pays off with durable customer growth, according to the National Law Review.
