Mastercard has reportedly joined a $25 million investment round in Australia-based payments-as-a-service Fintech mx51.
As noted my mx51’s management:
“We empower our partners to connect seamlessly with merchants and their customers. mx51 is the first Australian fintech to develop a bank-grade, modern, end-to-end Payment as a Service platform. With deep knowledge of merchant acquiring and scalable payments technology, we can help our partners thrive globally in a disruptive world.”
The capital secured represents mx51’s first major funding round, which has been finalized less than a year after the company branched out of Assembly Payments (in May of last year). The business is being led and was founded by ex- Westpac executive and ex- Assembly Payments co-CEO Victor Zheng.
Banking institutions and acquirers leverage mx51’s proprietary technology to provide a white-label platform for merchants that aims to compete with products offered by Fintechs Stripe, Square, and Tyro.
Following its partnership with Westpac, the firm reports handling more than $1 billion in transactions since it launched operations in 2020.
Company Chief Executive Zheng stated that they’re expecting to grow their aggregate volume to more than $10 billion within the next year as they enter strategic partnerships with established Australian financial institutions.
Zheng remarked:
“mx51 is helping Australian banks and acquirers, who are the backbone of our financial services sector, compete with a myriad of nimble overseas competitors who are muscling in on the payments sector. Our partnership with Westpac has been a fantastic incubator for the product, and now we are in advanced discussions around expanding to other financial services institutions across Australia.”
He added that the company, a graduate of Mastercard’s global Fintech accelerator Start Path (last year), will be increasing its employee headcount by around 30% as part of its ongoing business expansion plans.
Other investors that took part in mx51’s latest round reportedly include Acorn Capital, Artesian, and Commencer Capital.