Assembly Payments spin-off lands $25 million

White-label payment technology provider, mx51, which last year span out of fintech Assembly Payments, has raised $25 million in its first round, led by Acorn Capital, Artesian, Commencer Capital and Mastercard.

The Sydney-based fintech claims to be the first Australian fintech to develop a bank-grade, modern, Payment-as-a-Service platform, offering integrated payment solutions for merchants.

Last year it joined Mastercard’s global Start Path program, which gave mx51 access to the card company’s global channel of issuers and digital resources.

mx51 has partnered with Westpac on the development of Presto Smart, the bank’s integrated payment solution. Westpac backed the venture this time 12 months ago during the coronavirus lockdown.

The startup’s co-founder and CEO Victor Zheng, Westpac’s former head of payments, was co-CEO of Assembly Payments before spinning MX51 out of the business to focus on its white-label payments platform.

The funds will be used to build out its platform and work on developing partnerships with other banks to use X51 with their retail customers.

Zheng said the company is hoping to grow its headcount, which shrank to 50 during covid, by around 30% during 2021

“The size of our first ever round speaks for itself in terms of how bullish we are about rapidly rolling out our platform across Australia,” he said.

“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.”

James Douglas, Investment Director at Acorn said: “We believe that MX51 will be a key pillar of the Australian payments landscape – and in the long term a key part of the global payments ecosystem”

Mastercard’s VP of fintech account management Kallan Hogan said seeing a homegrown business l poised for rapid acceleration is a great moment for the local fintech community.

“It’s an example of the innovation Australia has on offer, and Mastercard is proud to extend its local and global support to a fintech laser-focused on delivering integrated payment solutions for merchants,” he said.