BOSTON & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flywire (formerly peerTransfer), the leading provider of global payment solutions for the education industry, today announced it has acquired UK tuition processor Uni-Pay. Uni-Pay offers tuition payment services to students attending 60 educational institutions in the UK, the second leading destination for foreign students studying abroad. Uni-Pay clients include University of Durham, University of Leeds, Manchester Metropolitan University, Liverpool John Moores University, Kings Education, Bell Educational Services and University of Liverpool. The company’s six Warrington-based employees will join Flywire, which began operating in the UK two years ago.
With the acquisition, Flywire will now serve over 120 UK-based educational clients, making it the clear market leader in the UK. Worldwide, the company now provides payment processing of international tuition, room and board payments, on an exclusive basis, for over 800 schools across 12 countries. The company, which raised $22M in early 2015 to accelerate its international growth, is on-track to process $2 billion in tuition payments this academic year. The company recently announced it was changing its name from peerTransfer to Flywire, as it seeks to become the global standard for important, large-sum payments that cross borders. In July, the company announced its expansion into China, the world’s largest market for students studying abroad.
Flywire provides an easy-to-use, cost-effective and secure way for international students to pay their tuition and other expenses at educational institutions located primarily in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Its cloud-based solution and growing payment volumes enable the firm to provide discounted currency conversion rates that can result in significant savings vs. the rates offered by banks in students' home countries. Educational providers can offer a range of multi-currency payment options including bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and online banking.
“We are delighted to have Uni-Pay’s outstanding slate of educational clients join the Flywire community, and to be able to offer the industry’s #1 international payment platform to them,” said Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire. “We’ve worked hard to earn our reputation for providing outstanding customer service and industry-leading technology to students and educational institutions around the world. The considerable experience and talents of the Uni-Pay employees joining our team will add greatly to our capabilities and further solidify that reputation.”
“This is truly a win-win-win situation for international students, educational institutions and the Uni-Pay/Flywire teams,” said Paul Kennedy, acting CEO of Uni-Pay. “Our clients and their students gain access to Flywire’s best-in-class foreign exchange rates, 24/7 multi-lingual servicing capabilities and broad choice of payment options. And the joint team is uniquely positioned to expand the success of Flywire here in the UK and across Europe.”
Uni-Pay has previously been operating as a subsidiary of Collective Enterprises Ltd. (CEL), owner of business services companies based in Warrington, UK.
Flywire, formerly peerTransfer, is the leading provider of global payment solutions for the education industry, providing processing, tracking and reconciliation services for over 800 educational institutions worldwide. The company offers an easy-to-use, economical payment experience for international students from over 200 countries and territories. Using local bank transfers, online payments, and credit and debit cards denominated in local currencies, students can more easily and confidently pay for their international tuition, room and board at educational institutions around the world. Flywire’s discounted currency conversion rates can offer significant savings compared to home-market banks and credit card providers and the company offers outstanding customer service and payment monitoring for both students and universities. Brown University, Cornell, MIT, University of Miami, University of Massachusetts–Amherst and University of Western Australia are just some of the schools offering the service to their international students.
Flywire is headquartered in Boston and has operations in Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.peerTransfer.com (soon to become www.flywire.com).
