Flywire acquires UK payment processor Uni-Pay

Today we are announcing our acquisition of 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 in our London office.

With the acquisition, we will now serve over 120 UK-based educational clients, making us a clear market leader in the UK. Worldwide, we now provide payment processing of international tuition, room and board payments, on an exclusive basis, for over 800 schools across 12 countries. In early 2015 we raised $22M to accelerate our international growth, and we are on-track to process $2 billion in tuition payments this academic year.

Our cloud-based solution and growing payment volumes enable us to provide discounted currency conversion rates that can result in significant savings versus 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 multilingual 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.”

“The size and scale of Flywire brings some instant and clear benefits to Uni-Pay’s customers such as the removal of the Uni-Pay transaction fee for students, a best rate guarantee on foreign exchange and a whole raft of additional payment options in countries such as Brazil, China, Nigeria and South Korea,” explained Simon Read, VP Sales, EMEA at Flywire.

“Manchester Met provides world class education facilities, cutting-edge technologies and is one of the largest campus-based universities in the UK,” said Paul Sheil, finance manager at Manchester Metropolitan University. “Access to cost effective payment options is essential to our growing international student population. Flywire provides an easy-to-use payment portal allowing students to quickly make payments from their home country, in their own currency, taking advantage of localised banking arrangements, competitive exchange rates and no international banking charges.”

Uni-Pay has previously been operating as a subsidiary of Collective Enterprises Ltd. (CEL), owner of business services companies based in Warrington, UK.