Flywire Charts Growth After Strategic Overhaul, Eyes AI and Stablecoin Opportunities
Flywire, the payments platform for complex cross-border transactions, is moving past a year of operational restructuring with plans to expand in education, healthcare and travel markets. CEO Mike Massaro said the company streamlined operations, improved data systems and reinvested in priority regions-work he described as positioning Flywire to scale.
The company targets clients with difficult billing processes, international payment needs or industry-specific software requirements. Flywire counts Cornell, Penn State and Cleveland Clinic among recent wins.
Education Faces Visa Headwinds but Gains Share
Flywire's education business is absorbing significant visa pressures. The company assumes flat visa issuance in the U.K. and Canada, and has already factored a 30% drop in U.S. visas into its guidance.
Despite those headwinds, Flywire continues to gain market share through a land-and-expand strategy. The company is pushing its Student Financials Solution-a billing and payment portal for domestic and international tuition-across existing customers. Penetration sits at roughly 10%, leaving substantial cross-sell room.
Massaro said Flywire sees demand across many countries where universities still rely on PDF invoices and email-based billing.
Healthcare and Travel Drive Recent Momentum
Healthcare delivered significant wins last year, including implementations at Cleveland Clinic, Endeavor, Cook County and Jackson Health. Flywire is finishing its Cleveland Clinic deployment and seeing payment volume increase, which has shifted the product mix and affected gross margins.
In travel, Flywire operates two roughly equal-sized businesses: a hospitality segment focused on U.S. hotel back-office workflows, and a luxury and experiential travel business. The hospitality unit, built around the Sertifi acquisition, is preparing an international rollout starting late this year.
Sertifi is ahead of schedule monetizing roughly $3 billion in payments that were previously unmonetized. The acquisition brought approximately 20,000 hotel locations into Flywire's network.
The luxury travel business is expanding into Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, with specialized offerings in ocean experiences, golf and cycling.
AI Reduces Support Costs; Stablecoins Show Promise
Flywire is using AI agents and automation to cut operational costs. The company has reduced payer support tickets by 40% by shifting work from manual queues to automated processes.
Massaro said Flywire's regulated infrastructure, industry-specific software, multi-year contracts and subject-matter expertise create defenses against disruption from AI competitors.
On stablecoins, Flywire is testing the technology across acceptance, internal money movement and settlement. A pilot active across more than 1,000 clients has generated volume that remains small relative to total payments. Economics so far match bank transfers.
Large enterprise clients have not yet demanded stablecoin settlement at scale. Massaro said stablecoins could improve speed or economics when traditional currency markets are closed.
Margins Expand as Company Invests in Scale
Flywire expanded EBITDA margins by 300 basis points last year and has guided for 275 basis points of expansion this year while continuing to invest in systems, data and AI infrastructure.
For executives evaluating payments platforms or considering how operational streamlining and technology investment drive growth, understanding AI's role in business strategy has become essential to competitive positioning.
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