Westpac-backed payments technology start-up mx51 has bucked the broader gloom in local tech investment circles, closing a $32.5 million funding round that more than doubled its valuation.including payment heavyweight Mastercard and venture capital operators Acorn Capital, Commencer Capital, Rampersand and Artesian.
The round was led by a European-headquartered global fintech-focused VC fund, which Mr Zheng said he was unable to name due to a confidentiality agreement. However he said the round had been raised earlier than initially planned because of the inbound interest from the fund.He said banks and acquirers were well positioned to co-invest with fintechs to deliver modern payment experiences to their merchants.
“I think this demonstrates that even in a tough market, companies with strong fundamentals and unique business models can still thrive. That is really the message we’ve all been hearing from investors since this downturn began.” “This is something which banks’ main competitors in this space, Square, Stripe and Adyen, have been able to do quite effectively.”
“For example, we will be building out our online payments capability targeting the professional and trade services,” he said.“We’re also focused on helping our customers protect merchants from online payment fraud and will be introducing early alerts, and chargeback management capability to help mitigate this.”