By Yantoultra Ngui SINGAPORE, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Airwallex has acquired South Korea's Paynuri Co Ltd, securing local payments licences and a foreign-exchange business registration that will allow it to operate directly in the country as the Australia-founded fintech expands in Asia. The deal follows a December funding round that valued Airwallex at $8 billion. Airwallex said on Wednesday that the acquisition gave it Paynuri's Payment Gateway and Prepaid Electronic Payment Instrument licences, as well as a Foreign Exchange Business registration. Financial terms were not disclosed. "This milestone allows us to operate directly in South Korea without the traditional reliance on third-party intermediaries," Lucy Liu, co-founder and president of Airwallex, told Reuters. Airwallex plans to launch its global business accounts and payments acquiring operations in South Korea in 2026, followed later that year by products including its spend-management tools. It aims to build a team of around 20 people in the country by end-2026, hiring across sales, compliance, client management and product support. "This acquisition marks a pivotal milestone for Airwallex as we expand the global reach of our financial platform," said Arnold Chan, general manager for Asia-Pacific at Airwallex. He said South Korea's fast-growing ecommerce, creative and entertainment sectors offered opportunities for Korean businesses abroad. $8 BILLION VALUATION The acquisition follows Airwallex's December funding round that valued the company at $8 billion, about 30% more than in its previous round, it said. Asked about listing plans, Liu said the company's priority was strengthening its global network and scaling its AI-driven solutions. "We continue to evaluate all options for our future capital strategy as we are focused on hitting our performance milestones and building products across the 26 offices and more than 200,000 companies we serve globally," she added. Airwallex said it reached $1.2 billion in annualised revenue and $266 billion in annualised transaction volume in December. The company is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore and is backed by investors including Tencent, DST Global and Hillhouse, according to its website. The most recent funding round also brought in new investors Addition, T. Rowe Price Inc, Activant, Lingotto, Robinhood Ventures and TIAA Ventures. (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Mark Potter and Muralikumar Anantharaman) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
