Flywire, a payment-tech unicorn working towards an IPO, recently partnered with online banking company Discover.
The aim of the partnership is to work with college-aged and boarding-school students to manage paying for tuition and other costs when they’re away from family.
“It was really a mutual decision," said Mohit Kansal, Flywire's vice president of global payments. "Flywire saw the potential to provide students, families and payers with excellent credit card payment options. Discover saw the opportunity to leverage Flywire’s global reach.”
Flywire operates bank transfers, card-based payments and alternative payment methods, if needed, for clients.
Due to Discover's brand, Flywire can offer "clients and their customers with even more options to make education payments,” said Ellie Smith, Discover's global head of digital acceptance.
The partnership follows Flywire's $60M Series F funding round this past March. Since the start of 2020, the company has gained $180M in funding from Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Whale Rock Capital, Sunley House, Marshall Wace, and others.
Flywire was initially formed in July 2009 as peerTransfer Corp., but changed its name to Flywire in December 2016. Last year, it became a so-called "unicorn" after a $120 million round led by Goldman Sachs pushed its valuation to over $1 billion.
Initially, the program will be available to Discover cardholders in seven countries at over 2,000 education institutions, paying in six different currencies: Columbia, Ecuador, India, Japan, Korea, Peru and the United States.
