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companies & people
Innovators’ Spotlight: The Problem Solvers
GEttiNG tO KNOw
Flywire
Location
Headquartered in Boston with offices in London, Valencia, Spain, and Shanghai
Open for Business
2011
CEO
Mike Massaro
Funding
$43 million in venture capital. Investors include Spark Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Devonshire Investors, Accel Partners and QED Investors.
Business Model
International payment processing via 100 percent digital model. Goal of providing best-in-class FX rates and a superior cus- tomer experience for institutions and students—and, over time, for institutions and their customers across multiple industries.
Something You Might
Not Expect
One customer with several kids attending college in the U.S. recently posted a thank-you comment after making his 13th tuition payment.
Making international tuition payments simple and cost-effective—and
eyeing new cross- border verticals.
SECrEt SauCE
Pinpoint-focus on providing a great customer experience for educational institutions and their students, including an easy-to-use online payment tool with transparency, 24/7 servicing and payment tracking, and competitive currency conversion rates.
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When Flywire (formerly peer- Transfer) founder Iker Mar- caide moved to the U.S. from Valencia, Spain, in 2008 to pursue his MBA at MIT, he thought he was well-prepared. One thing he didn’t anticipate, however, was the diffi- culty he encountered paying his tuition bill. The process of convert- ing euros to dollars (at unfavorable exchange rates with additional fees)—then wiring the funds to MIT’s U.S. bank account—proved to be almost impossible.
This experience led him to join with payments experts and create Flywire, which offers a more con- venient, low-cost way to pay international tuition. Now accepted at more than 750 schools, the company is processing payments in nearly 100 currencies. With an average ticket size of $12,000, Flywire is on track to process more than $2 billion in payments for the 2015-16 academic year.
How it Works
Students are directed to a custom- ized billing portal that enables them to pay in local currency via local
bank transfers, credit and debit cards, or online wallets. Flywire performs the currency conversion at discounted exchange rates, pays the school directly and provides precise payment details for each school. The process can save students money and the schools thousands of hours in reconciliations.
In July, the company announced the opening of an office in Shanghai to serve Chinese students studying in North America, Europe and Austra- lia. “China is the No. 1 market for international students, and it’s always been a key market for us,” notes CEO Mike Massaro. “The office there will serve as an operational hub for the region, getting us closer to our partners like Alipay and UnionPay and helping us generate interest in our services.”
Though Flywire is focusing on the education vertical for now, its platform is well-suited to handle many types of high-value, cross- border transactions, according to Massaro. “We’ve gotten interest for everything from real estate, to yacht shipment to medical expenses,” he says. “We’ve realized that the need for a solution like ours isn’t limited to the education space.”