Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW) reported third-quarter results that exceeded its guidance across revenue, adjusted gross profit and adjusted EBITDA, as growth in U.K. education, travel and hospitality helped offset visa-related pressure in major international education markets.
Chief Executive Officer Mike Massaro said the company generated record top-line revenue, adjusted EBITDA and GAAP net income profitability during the quarter. He said Flywire has become more diversified, with nearly half of revenue now coming from outside its core international education products, compared with just over one-third two years ago.
The company processed approximately $17.8 billion in payment volume and generated more than $240 million in revenue during the quarter, Massaro said. Flywire identified four growth drivers: market-share gains in the four largest education destinations, expansion into nontraditional education markets, travel and hospitality scaling, and enterprise B2B and healthcare growth.
Quarterly Results and Updated Outlook
Chief Financial Officer Cosmin Pitigoi said revenue less ancillary services totaled approximately $245 million, up 26% year over year on both a reported and FX-neutral basis. The result exceeded the midpoint of Flywire’s guidance by $15 million.
More than half of the revenue outperformance was attributable to a strong U.K. tuition peak late in the quarter, which accounted for roughly five percentage points of growth, Pitigoi said. He added that Flywire does not expect that level of U.K. contribution to recur in the fourth quarter. About one percentage point of the outperformance reflected early payment timing ahead of late-October deadlines.
- Adjusted gross profit was $155.8 million, up 22.2% year over year.
- Adjusted gross margin was 63.7%, down 200 basis points from a year earlier, primarily due to business mix and growth in lower-margin healthcare and B2B payment-processing programs.
- Adjusted EBITDA was nearly $80 million, with margin expanding about 310 basis points year over year to 32.5%.
- GAAP net income was $74.5 million, including a $39.2 million one-time tax valuation allowance benefit.
- Free cash flow totaled $72 million in the quarter.
Flywire ended the quarter with $234 million in corporate cash and investments and an unfunded $300 million credit facility, for total liquidity of $534 million. The company said it spent close to half of its free cash flow so far this year on share repurchases and had $123 million remaining under its $300 million authorization.
For full-year 2026, Flywire raised its FX-neutral revenue growth outlook to 25% to 27%, with a 26% midpoint, representing a two-percentage-point increase from prior guidance. The company expects adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 300 to 360 basis points for the year, implying a 23.3% margin at the midpoint.
For the fourth quarter, Flywire forecast FX-neutral revenue growth of 14% to 20%. Pitigoi said quarterly results could be affected by tuition and certain travel-payment deadlines shifting between the fourth quarter and the first quarter. The company also expects payment-processing ramp contributions to decline to about one percentage point in the fourth quarter from about three points in the third quarter.
Education Diversification and Software Adoption
President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Orgel said Flywire signed approximately 180 new clients across 31 countries and all four of its verticals during the quarter. More than 65% of new education clients signed came from outside the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, while the company’s efforts in those four core markets centered more on larger enterprise agreements.
Education revenue outside the four largest destination markets grew more than 30% in the first nine months of the year and is now larger than Flywire’s Canadian and Australian businesses combined, Orgel said. He described the segment as a greenfield opportunity where institutions often are digitizing payments for the first time.
In the U.S., Flywire cited Student Financial Software wins at Santa Clara University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The company said U.S. institutions have activated more than 1 million student payment plans through Flywire, with average plan enrollment increasing 50%.
In the U.K., Flywire signed the University of Stirling for Student Financial Software on Unit4 and added London Business School and the Royal College of Radiologists. The company also won Cardiff for cross-border and domestic payments after an incumbent provider lost compatibility during a system update by partner Tribal, according to Orgel.
Management said Student Financial Software is expected to grow faster than the overall company next year, though Orgel noted that education institutions adopt technology on their own timelines. The company is also expanding integrations with student housing platforms, including a live StarRez integration at several U.K. institutions and a global preferred payment partnership with Kinetic Software.
Travel, Healthcare and B2B Expansion
Massaro said Flywire’s year-to-date travel business is already larger than its U.S. education business. In travel, the company continues to target luxury and experiential travel while integrating payment capabilities with hospitality software. Orgel said Flywire’s hospitality payments platform processed more than $1 billion in volume over the last 12 months and sees a domestic opportunity exceeding $2.5 billion.
The company is testing hospitality product-market fit in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. While initial international agreements are modest in contract value, Orgel said they support Flywire’s plans to build international go-to-market capabilities over multiple years.
In healthcare, Flywire expanded its relationship with Cleveland Clinic and secured a software and integrated-financing upsell with Endeavor Health across additional group hospitals. The company also cited new go-lives at public health systems and regional providers, as well as continued work through FinThrive and Oracle channel partnerships.
In B2B, Flywire said its invoice-to-cash software was attached to the vast majority of third-quarter deals. One customer, Liquidity Services International, is using Flywire to enable localized payments in more than 100 countries.
Efficiency Initiatives and Capital Allocation
Massaro said Flywire is pursuing organizational and technology changes intended to let revenue grow faster than costs. During the quarter, the company moved payer support under its payments organization and combined its credit, fraud, cybersecurity and compliance teams under a single risk function.
Flywire also said its proprietary Orbit AI platform completed more than 10,000 code-maintenance and testing workflows in the prior 30 days with a 99% success rate, including more than 9,000 automated code reviews. The company said all changes continue to be reviewed by an engineer.
As part of Project ADAPT, Flywire deployed Workday HCM, replacing more than 10 separate HR systems. The company said it continues to target $1 billion in annual organic revenue and a 30% adjusted EBITDA margin over the longer term, while Pitigoi said it remains on track for a 25% adjusted EBITDA margin in 2027.
During the quarter, Flywire also completed a small acquisition of customer relationships in Canada. Pitigoi said the transaction’s revenue contribution will be immaterial in the second half of 2026 and represent less than one percentage point of annualized revenue growth as it ramps through 2027.
About Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW)
Flywire Corp. (NASDAQ: FLYW) is a global payments and software company that helps organizations receive and manage payments from customers and clients in multiple countries and currencies. Its platform is designed to simplify complex, cross-border transactions while providing payment tracking, reconciliation and related accounts-receivable capabilities.
The company serves several major verticals, including education, healthcare, travel and business-to-business payments. Its products and services include international and domestic payment processing, digital billing and invoicing, payment plans, embedded payment solutions and tools that help organizations automate reconciliation and improve the payment experience.
Flywire was founded in 2009 as peerTransfer and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
