Flywire Partners with VTEX to Deliver Integrated Payment Experience to Higher Education Institutions across Latin America

A global payments enablement and software company, Flywire partners with VTEX, the global enterprise digital commerce platform. Incorporating Flywire’s digital education payment solution into the VTEX digital commerce platform enables a seamless payment experience for institutions looking to simplify on-campus transactions, from tuition and enrollment fees, to e-store payments and more, for students worldwide. The integration also supports both international and domestic payment flows, making the reconciliation process easier for school administrators.

Recent Flywire data shows that students studying in Mexico prefer one touch point for all their payment needs, especially for tuition, student fees and expenses. With Flywire, VTEX customers now benefit from payment processes that are automated end-to-end, including initial application fees, campus store purchases, tuition payments and more. This integration offers students and families effortless tracking and payment capabilities in their native currencies, while also enabling university accounting professionals to access all payment information within their record system. By integrating directly into the VTEX platform, Flywire helps universities streamline upgrades and ensures complex compliance standards, as well as tax considerations, are always up to date.

Integration supports institutions with goals to diversify and internationalize

Universities across Latin America are increasingly focused on attracting and enrolling students from outside the region. This trend is especially true in Mexico, where universities have set specific internationalization goals. One of these institutions is Tecnológico de Monterrey (“Tec”), a Flywire client benefiting from the collaborative integration with VTEX. Recognized as one of the most prestigious educational institutions in Latin America and spread across 32 cities in Mexico, Tec has a goal to increase the number of international student enrollments in the years ahead, and this integration helps to support those efforts.

“Tecnológico de Monterrey has 26 campuses across Mexico and offers a rich variety of academic courses to our students from around the world,” said José Juan López Bobadilla, treasurer at Tecnológico de Monterrey. “As our student body grows and diversifies, we need a partner that supports a variety of payment methods and allows students to pay in local currencies, and that is integrated into our VTEX platform. This integration gives us a comprehensive, real-time view of all transactions and streamlines the receipt and reconciliation of international student payments. This has not only resulted in significant time savings for treasury staff but also an improved experience for students worldwide.”

Tec is one of the institutions staying ahead of the curve when it comes to providing students a seamless payment experience throughout their financial journey. As more students look to study in Mexico, universities need a more streamlined payment process to optimize the student experience. According to recent Flywire research of students studying in Mexico, seven in ten students surveyed said having just one payment provider for their education expenses would make the payment process much easier. And affordability is an ongoing concern, with almost three-quarters of students in Mexico saying the option to pay in installments would help them better afford their education expenses.

“We’re thrilled to partner with VTEX and help universities in Latin America streamline the payment experience for their students,” said Rafael Ayala, Managing Director of Latin America for Flywire. “Combining VTEX’s powerful digital commerce platform with Flywire’s payment capabilities provides a one-stop-shop experience for students and families throughout their entire life cycle and improves the efficiency for administrators. We look forward to furthering our relationship with VTEX and finding new opportunities for innovation.”

Partnering to create a new best practice for the higher education ecosystem in Latin America

Acknowledged as a global leader in digital commerce, VTEX provides a complete solution trusted by some of the world’s leading brands, such as Carrefour, Colgate, Motorola, Sony, Stanley Black & Decker, Whirlpool, and many others. With a proven track record of transforming e-commerce operations in 38 countries around the globe, VTEX identified an opportunity to introduce its digital-first approach into the higher education landscape, which is traditionally known for multiple vendors, legacy systems and manual processes. To penetrate the higher education market, VTEX sought a partner specializing in international payments that had a strong presence and expertise in Latin America, a significant share of the global education market, and a shared passion for innovative technology solutions.

Henry Sraigman, head of Global Alliances at VTEX, commented: “As leaders in driving digital commerce transformation, partnering with global organizations that offer the best technological solutions is paramount for VTEX. Flywire brought exactly what we were looking for: expertise in the Latin American region, sophisticated software to seamlessly integrate with our platform, and a shared passion for improving the current status quo. Integrating Flywire directly into our complete platform not only enhances the students’ payment experience but also brings better business results by making it much easier and faster for university staff to reconcile payments.”

For universities across Latin America, it can be difficult to manage student payments originating from different countries and in different currencies. Finance teams can struggle to manage domestic and international payments for different purposes in different systems, and reconciling international payments typically requires a lot of manual effort for university staff and can complicate student registration. This all creates complexity and friction for both students and university staff – challenges that the VTEX and Flywire integration helps resolve.

For students and families, the integrated solution provides a highly tailored, convenient, and secure digital payment experience, which can be customized by university, country, and currency. For institutions, they can now easily consolidate the multiple payment options they offer, which accelerates funds flow, simplifies reconciliation processes, and streamlines operational efficiencies. Additionally, institutions can create custom interest-free payment plans to provide students and families with greater flexibility to better address education affordability.