BOSTON & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Flywire (formerly peerTransfer), a leading provider of cross-border payment solutions, today announced the acquisition of Toronto-based ScholarFX, a respected processor of tuition, room and board payments for international students attending universities and other educational institutions in Canada. The news follows Flywire’s successful October 2015 acquisition of UK-based Uni-Pay, and its continued strong organic growth.
The ScholarFX acquisition brings the total number of colleges and universities served by Flywire to almost 900, adding institutions such as Bishop’s University, MacEwan University and Camosun College. ScholarFX will become part of Flywire Canada, based in Toronto. Existing educational clients will migrate to the Flywire platform over the next few months and ScholarFX’s founder, Darren Chadwick, joins Flywire Canada in a leadership role.
“The acquisition of ScholarFX expands our ability to attract and service Canadian educational institutions while adding to the scale of our industry-leading cross-border payment platform,” said Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire. “ScholarFX has a great understanding of the Canadian market and their personalized, customer-centric approach to service is perfectly aligned with ours. We’re also excited to add Darren Chadwick to our team, and to bring all the advantages of our solution to this fast-growing market.”
For international students attending schools in Canada, Flywire offers best-in-class currency conversion rates, 24/7 payment tracking, multi-lingual customer service, and the ability to pay in 70 different local currencies. Education institutions benefit from Flywire’s payment reconciliation tools, global account servicing, and easy-to-use digital tracking.
Canada is one of the fastest-growing destinations for international education today. According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), Canada attracted over 330,000 international students during the 2014-15 school year, up 83% from 2008. China, India, France, South Korea and the United States are the leading countries of origination for Canadian institutions.
Flywire continues to experience strong growth in recent months:
- The company is on-track to process $2 billion in tuition, room and board payments in the academic year ending Spring 2016, double the previous year’s volume.
- Uni-Pay client institutions have responded enthusiastically to Flywire’s payment platform and FX capabilities. Migration efforts will be completed by end of March. Flywire is now the clear leader in international tuition payment services in the UK.
- In October, the company announced its entry into the $40B medical tourism market.
- Flywire now has over 100 employees worldwide, a doubling vs. year ago.
- At its Boston-based headquarters, the company is adding 5,000 square feet of space to accommodate growth in personnel and operations.
- In September, Flywire changed its name from peerTransfer, setting its sights on becoming the global standard for important, large-sum payments that cross borders.
Flywire, formerly peerTransfer, is a leading provider of high-ticket cross-border payment solutions, connecting institutions on six continents with consumers from around the world. Introduced four years ago as a way for international students to pay their tuition for studies abroad, Flywire is now welcomed by almost 900 colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. The company processes payments on behalf of students from 200+ countries and territories, in 70 local currencies. Convenient, fast and secure, Flywire’s scalable cross-border platform accepts bank transfers, online banking, and credit and debit cards − providing currency conversion at exchange rates that can offer significant savings when compared to home-market banks and credit card providers. Committed to a great end-to-end customer experience, the company offers multilingual servicing via phone, email, and chat, as well as 24/7 online payment tracking.
Flywire is headquartered in Boston, MA with international operations in London, Manchester (UK), Shanghai, China, and Valencia, Spain. For more information, visit www.Flywire.com.
