Payments company Flywire to IPO, estimated $3B valuation

Dive Brief:

Payments processor Flywire has submitted paperwork for an IPO offering with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Reuters reported.
The IPO could value the firm around $3 billion. A year ago, following a funding round, the company was valued at $1 billion, Reuters previously reported.
The Boston based company, founded in 2011, was started to help universities, hospitals and businesses accept foreign-currency payments.

Dive Insight:

Flywire creates software that connects banks to various institutions. It allows foreign and domestic students to pay American businesses and institutions in their home currency, with payment methods students are familiar with. "Flywire becomes the pay button," CEO Mike Massaro told Forbes.

The number of international students in the U.S. was at an all-time high before the pandemic, contributing $44.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018, according to IIE. Flywire wanted to find a way to eliminate safety and security risks for those international students that might not be comfortable with U.S. banks or currency transfer. Moreover, Flywire's software reduces International Student Office workload at campuses across the country.

While education counts for a majority of Flywire's business, the company realized branching into healthcare and travel was a natural outgrowth for a business whose start came from a focus on international students.

More than 50 leading U.S. health systems use Flywire for their digital payments, PYMNTS.com reported, resulting in $14 billion in processed patient transactions. That accounts for more than one-third of U.S. households.

During 2020, Flywire worked with Epic, a healthcare software company, to incorporate single sign-on and telehealth payments into its app. It allows customers to access Flywire through their medical charts and gives them pre-service payment options, Distilinfo reported.

Not only does Flywire provide options for patients, it provides digital payment services for hospitals as well. This is especially important for hospitals dealing with medical tourists, who come to the U.S. for specialized services they don't have access to in their home countries. Healthcare Finance reports medical tourism is growing at a rate of 15% to 25% a year. Many of these patients pay for a large percentage of their care out-of-pocket through Flywire.