Corporate / CVC · 6 deals
Every published round Mastercard took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
Everyone Mastercard has named to a program in published coverage. A place in a program is not a raise: the cheque is the figure recorded with the place, which is the program's standard terms where we hold them, and a blank is one we don't.
Companies Mastercard has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airwallex | May 2017, Series A | 1 | 1 | |
| Mx51 | 12 May 2020, Accelerator | 3 | 2 | |
| Paypa Plane | 3 Apr 2023, Series A | 1 | 0 | |
| WeMoney | 22 Apr 2025, Series A | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for Mastercard, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Mastercard has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Mastercard did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Barr | Startup Daily (Fri 29 Aug 2025), SmartCompany, Startup Daily (Mon 25 Aug 2025), Business News Australia, Australian FinTech | |
| Peter Slater | Divisional CFO (former) | Australian FinTech |
| Neal Cross | Executive (former) | Australian FinTech |
| Zahir Khoja | Executive VP of Global Merchant Solutions and Partnerships | Startup Daily |
| Ajay Banga | Global Chairman | Bondi Partners portfolio |
| Surin Fernando | Senior Vice President and Head of Customer Solutions Center, Australasia | Australian FinTech |
| Ahu Chhapgar | Senior Vice President of Digital Payments Technology (former) | Australian FinTech |
| Brenton Charnley | Vice President and Head of Open Banking, Australasia | Fintech News Australia, Australian FinTech (Tue 22 Apr 2025), Australian FinTech (Thu 23 May 2024) |
| Kallan Hogan | VP of Fintech Account Management | Startup Daily, Australian FinTech |
Stories naming Mastercard. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Street Talk reports Tidal Ventures led a seed round in fintech RedOwl with CP Ventures also investing, valuing the Melbourne company near $40 million; an earlier pre-seed raise is recalled.
Also Dealroom
WeMoney has launched WeMoney Connect, an AI lending assessment tool using consented Consumer Data Right bank data, in limited early access for Australian lenders, with Mastercard as strategic investor.
Australian FinTech introduces Canvas as a new member. Canvas builds infrastructure for tokenised securities, stablecoins and CBDCs, and took part in the Reserve Bank of Australia's eAUD pilot.
ANNA's Australian operation obtained its financial services licence and rolled out Apple Pay, Google Pay and Mastercard checkout alongside ASIC and ATO integrations, letting small firms manage payments and tax in one place.
Ten13's post sets out its reasons for backing Appetise's A$7 million Series A with OIF, Icehouse, NZVC and K1W1, highlighting the grocery platform's shopper dataset and growth.
Melbourne fintech pay.com.au has banked $25 million for a US push, Morgans Corporate leading, with Wilson Asset Management, Thorney Group and Ophir participating, at a pre-money valuation of $633 million.
Australian card payments firm Vault Payment Solutions has been granted Mastercard Principal Issuer status, giving it direct network access to build and launch payment products faster with stronger security for clients.
Forbes Australia profiles EatClub co-founder Pan Koutlakis, whose restaurant discount app raised $18.2 million in a Series A led by Co:Act Capital to fund UK expansion after a near-collapse during COVID.
Weekly roundup detailing five Australian raises: Vaxxas' Series D plus debt facility amid executive changes, Skutopia's growth round, Send Payments' backing and CEO change, Apate.ai's seed, and Coursebox's seed.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Australian FinTech·Dealroom·Startup Daily
Cross-border payments firm Send has landed a five-million-dollar round backed by iPartners and existing backers, and named payments veteran Matt Barr chief executive while co-founder Paul Billing steps back.
Also Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·Business News Australia
Funding roundup covering six Australian-linked startups: Superpower's US$30m Series A, WeMoney's $12m Series A plus debt facility, InsightWise's $1m pre-seed, and Bupa's first venture investments in three health startups.
WeMoney banked $12 million in a Series A led via Laurence Escalante's family office, with Mastercard among backers, plus $1 million debt, at a reported $100 million valuation.
Also SmartCompany
JellyC announces the Bluebottle Multi-Strategy Fund has invested in Redbelly Network, a layer-one blockchain built for tokenising real-world assets, citing transaction speeds far exceeding major payment networks.
Weekly roundup covering seven ANZ startup raises — Bare Funerals, Humii, WeMoney, CLT Toolbox, Clean Slate Clinic, SpatialGPT and Great Wrap — plus LaunchVic's $900,000 into Paul Little's Skalata fund.
Also Startup Daily
WeMoney closed a $3 million round from largely existing backers, following its 2020 seed and 2022 raises, and signed a Mastercard Open Banking deal while preparing a larger raise.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup News (WA)
A profile of Brisbane fintech Paypa Plane's new 12-week gender-neutral parental leave policy, noting its recent $10 million Series A raise, Mastercard backing, and plans to grow its team.
Also paypaplane.com·Business News Australia·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·Startup Daily·Women's Agenda
Brisbane payments startup Paypa Plane closed a $10 million Series A led by QIC with Cuscal, Mastercard and Sprint Ventures; Commonwealth Bank earlier took a 20% stake, and two new directors joined the board.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Australian FinTech·Women's Agenda·Business News Australia
Brisbane payments fintech Paypa Plane has secured a $10 million Series A led by QIC, with Mastercard, Cuscal and Sprint Ventures joining earlier backers CBA and Tyro, funding hiring and US expansion.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Australian FinTech·Startup Daily·Women's Agenda
US fintech investor Michael H. Giles has invested A$6.9 million in Brisbane-listed payments provider Change Financial, taking a 19.99% stake via his vehicle FinTech HQ to support its US expansion.
Zeller launches transaction accounts, debit cards and an app, expanding beyond payments into broader business banking services, and announces an exclusive distribution partnership with Officeworks for its debit card.
Cut Through Venture's August update rounds up July 2022 Australian startup funding, listing raises from Mx51 to WeMoney, Startmate's newest cohort of twelve, and the beta launch of its investor search tool.
Also Techboard
A roundup of Australian startups that raised funds in recent weeks: mx51, Refundid, Storipress, HIVERY, InternMatch, upcover, Pearler and Loopit together secured over $100 million despite a cooling venture market.
Also Cut Through Venture
Payments company mx51 has closed a Series B round of $32.5 million with existing backers participating, after an undisclosed lead investor, and plans to expand in Australia and internationally.
Also Australian FinTech·SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech
Podcast interview with Slyp co-founder Paul Weingarth on digitising receipts and loyalty, with all four major Australian banks having invested in the company.
UK payments company Kikapay hires Glenn Quadros for its legal and commercial leadership, launches a soft-POS product, and notes a funding round set to wrap in May.
Square Peg looks back on putting US$6 million into Airwallex's Series A+ alongside Tencent, Sequoia China, Gobi Partners and MasterCard, explaining why cross-border payment infrastructure needs fixing.
Buy now, pay later firm Zip has hired Ahu Chhapgar as global chief technology officer, starting in December at its New York office, reporting to CEO Larry Diamond to lead worldwide technology and engineering.
Bondi Partners' Joe Hockey and Ellerston Capital's Ashok Jacob closed fundraising for 1941, a private national security investment club with about 30 backers; the article also recalls Digicel's sale to Telstra.
Parpera closed an oversubscribed $1.3 million round led by Equitable Investors, following a $1 million crowdfunding raise, to launch Australia's first Banking-as-a-Service offering with Railspay.
Railsbank's Australian arm Railspay has partnered with Parpera to offer banking-as-a-service in Australia, with Parpera as first customer, while Railsbank recently closed a A$95 million round and hired Ben Smith as Australian general manager.
Archa, once a consumer neobank, has released a business credit card with spend management tools for Australian small businesses, and is seeking growth funding co-led by two investment firms.
Weekly venture roundup covering Scalapay's giant series A, numerous Australian raises, acquisitions of Clipchamp, Paidy and CipherTrace, Houseparty's closure, crypto regulation developments, and Atlassian appointing a Cloudflare founder as director.
Sydney gifting app Shouta has raised a $1 million seed round from entrepreneur angels including Aconex's Rob Phillpot and Carsales' Steve Kloss, to grow its team and expand its Shouta Biz workplace offering.
Also Startup Daily
ASX-listed payments company Zip Co has announced plans to take full ownership of South African buy-now-pay-later provider Payflex, intending to grow the local business and expand into other African markets.
Book extract by the Equity Mates hosts urging investors to look beyond Australia, mentioning their podcast's December 2020 seed backing from Stake's founder for a reported six-figure sum in return for 8%.
Sydney customer-research software firm Dovetail raised $5 million from existing backers Felicis, Blackbird, Grok and Didier Elzinga, following its 2020 seed round, to fund a North American expansion.
Rewire Holding, through its Saurus.com brand, announced a partnership with a London casino and recalled a $2.3 million pre-Series A raise, plus its CEO's background, Fosun incubator membership and product milestones.
Student fintech QPay raised $1.15 million from 745 crowdfund investors via Birchal, plans a Canadian launch and global growth, and partnered with neobank Volt; it previously won Shark Tank money and Blackbird backing.
Fintech Rewire Holding has closed a second seed round, adding US$2.3 million for its Saurus.com multi-currency banking app, which serves underserved communities and includes cash-deposit and payment-transfer technology.
Weekly roundup covering CBA's strategic stakes in Little Birdie and Amber, several Australian funding rounds, Zip's BNPL acquisitions, Tritium's planned NASDAQ listing, Amazon's MGM purchase and other global tech news.
Also Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Women's Agenda