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Risk Overview Q2, 2026
Risk Distribution
41% Finance & Corporate
23% Ability to Sell
15% Tech & Innovation
9% Legal & Regulatory
7% Production
5% Macro & Political
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
This chart displays the stock's most recent risk distribution according to category. TipRanks has identified 6 major categories: Finance & corporate, legal & regulatory, macro & political, production, tech & innovation, and ability to sell.
Risk Change Over Time
S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
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Flywire Risk Factors
New Risk (0)
Risk Changed (0)
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No changes from previous report
The chart shows the number of risks a company has disclosed. You can compare this to the sector average or S&P 500 average.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
Risk Highlights Q2, 2026
Main Risk Category
Finance & Corporate
With 30 Risks
Finance & Corporate
With 30 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
74
+1
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 31
74
+1
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
1Risks added
0Risks removed
0Risks changed
Since Jun 2026
1Risks added
0Risks removed
0Risks changed
Since Jun 2026
Number of Risk Changed
0
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 1
0
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 1
See the risk highlights of Flywire in the last period.
Risk Word Cloud
The most common phrases about risk factors from the most recent report. Larger texts indicate more widely used phrases.
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 74
Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 30/74 (41%)Above Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights10 | 13.5%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
The price of our common stock may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid for them.Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
Our business and operations could be negatively affected by securities litigation or stockholder activism.From time to time, we may be subject to securities class actions, derivative suits or other securities-related legal actions.
In the past, securities class action litigation have often been brought against a company following a decline in the market price of its securities. In July 2025, we and certain of our current and former officers were named as defendants in a securities class action complaint captioned Hickman v. Flywire Corporation filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of a putative class of investors who purchased Flywire securities from February 28, 2024, through February 25, 2025. In January 2026, the complaint was amended to, among other matters, remove a former officer from the claim and modify the class period to the time period between May 21, 2024 through February 25, 2025. Plaintiffs' counsel filed a second amended complaint on May 7, 2026, which among other matters, added new allegations and another named plaintiff. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act by purportedly overstating the strength and sustainability of our revenue growth and understating the negative impact of certain government permit and visa related policies on the business. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, costs, attorneys' fees, and other relief. We believe we have strong defenses against the asserted claims and intend to vigorously defend ourselves and we filed a motion to dismiss in response to the second amended complaint on June 15, 2026.
In addition, stockholder activism, which could take many forms and arise in a variety of situations, has been increasing recently, and new universal proxy rules could significantly lower the cost and further increase the ease and likelihood of stockholder activism. This risk is especially relevant for us because technology companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. Volatility in our stock price or other reasons may in the future cause us to become the target of securities litigation or stockholder activism. Securities litigation and stockholder activism, including potential proxy contests, could result in substantial costs, including significant legal fees and other expenses, and divert our management and board of directors' attention and resources from our business. Additionally, securities litigation and stockholder activism could give rise to perceived uncertainties as to our future, adversely affect our relationships with clients and business partners, adversely affect our reputation, and make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel. Our stock price could also be subject to significant fluctuation or otherwise be adversely affected by the events, risks and uncertainties of any securities litigation and stockholder activism.
Any claims or litigation, even if fully indemnified or insured, could adversely affect our relationships with clients and business partners, damage our reputation, decrease client or their customers' demand for our solutions and make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel, making it more difficult for us to compete effectively. In addition, lawsuits or legal claims involving us may increase our insurance premiums, deductibles or co-insurance requirements or otherwise make it more difficult for us to maintain or obtain adequate insurance coverage on acceptable terms, if at all. Furthermore, while we maintain insurance for certain potential liabilities, such insurance does not cover all types and amounts of potential liabilities and is subject to various exclusions, as well as caps on amounts recoverable. Even if we believe that a claim is covered by insurance, insurers may dispute our entitlement to recovery for a variety of potential reasons, which may affect the timing and, if the insurers prevail, the amount of our recovery. Our exposure under these matters may also include our indemnification obligations, to the extent that we have any, to current and former officers and directors against losses incurred in connection with these matters, including reimbursement of legal fees and other expenses.
As a result, lawsuits involving us, or our officers or directors, could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and the trading price of our common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our intellectual property on unfavorable terms to us.Until such time, if ever, as we can generate substantial revenue, we may finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, government or private party grants, debt financings and strategic partnership agreements. We may seek additional capital through a variety of means, including through strategic partnership arrangements, public or private equity or debt financings, third-party funding and marketing and distribution arrangements, as well as other strategic alliances and licensing arrangements or any combination of these approaches. However, disruptions in the capital markets, particularly with respect to financial technology companies, could make any financing more challenging, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to raise capital on commercially reasonable terms or at all. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation preferences or other rights, powers or preferences that may adversely affect your rights as a stockholder. To the extent that debt financing is available, and we choose to raise additional capital in the form of debt, such debt financing may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take certain actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If we raise additional capital pursuant to collaborations, licensing arrangements or other strategic partnerships, such agreements may require us to relinquish rights to our technologies.
If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity or debt financing or through collaborations or strategic partnerships when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate the development of our solutions or commercialization efforts.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
We may allocate our cash and cash equivalents in ways that you and other stockholders may not approve.Our management has broad discretion in the application of our cash and cash equivalents. Because of the number and variability of factors that determine our use of our cash and cash equivalents, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. Our management might not apply cash and cash equivalents in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest our cash and cash equivalents in short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing securities. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not invest or apply our cash and cash equivalents in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5
We cannot guarantee that our Repurchase Program will be fully implemented or that it will enhance stockholder value, and share repurchases could affect the price of our common stock.In August 2024, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized the Repurchase Program, pursuant to which we may, from time to time, purchase shares of our Voting and Non-voting common stock for an aggregate purchase price not to exceed $150 million. In July 2025, our Board of Directors approved an increase in the aggregate amount of voting and non-voting common stock outstanding that may be repurchased under the Repurchase Program by an additional $150 million, bringing the total authorized amount under the Repurchase Program to $300 million. As of June 30, 2026 approximately $122.7 million remained available for repurchases under the Repurchase Program.
Repurchases under the Repurchase Program may be made through a variety of methods and are subject to market and business conditions, levels of available liquidity, cash requirements for other purposes, regulatory, and other relevant factors. The timing, pricing, and size of share repurchases under the Repurchase Program, will depend on a number of factors, including price, corporate and regulatory requirements, capital allocation alternatives, and general market and economic conditions. The Repurchase Program, does not obligate us to repurchase any minimum dollar amount or number of shares, and may be suspended or discontinued by our Board of Directors at any time, which may result in a decrease in the price of our common stock.
Repurchases under the Repurchase Program will decrease the number of outstanding shares of our common stock and therefore could affect the price of our common stock and increase its volatility. The existence of the Repurchase Program could also cause the price of our common stock to be higher than it would be in the absence of such a program and could reduce the market liquidity for our common stock. Repurchases under the Repurchase Program will diminish our cash reserves, which could impact our ability to further develop our business and service our indebtedness. There can be no assurance that any share repurchases will enhance stockholder value because the market price of our common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased such shares. Any failure to repurchase shares after we have announced our intention to do so may negatively impact our reputation and investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our common stock price. Although the Repurchase Program is intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, short-term price fluctuations could reduce the program's effectiveness.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If industry analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price for our common stock would be negatively affected. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our common stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our common stock price and trading volume to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or if there is a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale and the market perceives that sales will occur. We had a total of 121,609,147 shares of our voting common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2026. Other than shares held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates that are subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and various vesting agreements, these shares of common stock generally are freely tradable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act.
Certain of our stockholders have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders, subject to market standoff and lock-up agreements. We registered shares of common stock that we have issued and may issue under our equity incentive plans. These shares will be able to be sold freely in the public market upon issuance, subject to securities laws.
The market price of the shares of our common stock could decline as a result of the sale of a substantial number of our shares of common stock in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8
The concentration of our stock ownership will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the ability to influence the outcome of director elections and other matters requiring stockholder approval.As of June 30, 2026 our current executive officers, directors and the holders of more than 5% of our outstanding voting and non-voting common stock, in the aggregate, beneficially owned a significant percentage of our outstanding voting and non-voting common stock. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have significant influence over all matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate actions might be taken even if other stockholders oppose them. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company that other stockholders may view as beneficial.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 9
Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our common stock.Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
- a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which could delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;- the ability of our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquiror;- the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;- a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;- the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by a majority vote of our entire board of directors, the chairman of our board of directors or our chief executive officer, which could delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;- the requirement for the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then-outstanding shares of the voting stock, voting together as a single class, to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws, which may inhibit the ability of an acquiror to effect such amendments to facilitate an unsolicited takeover attempt; and - advance notice procedures with which stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders' meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquiror's own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.
In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Section 203 of the DGCL. These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for a certain period of time. A Delaware corporation may opt out of this provision by express provision in its original certificate of incorporation or by amendment to its certificate of incorporation or bylaws approved by its stockholders. However, we have not opted out of this provision.
These and other provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirors to obtain control of our board of directors or initiate actions that are opposed by our then-current board of directors, including delay or impede a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving our company. The existence of these provisions could negatively affect the price of our common stock and limit opportunities for you to realize value in a corporate transaction.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 10
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or FlyMates.Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This provision would not apply to claims brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides further that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. These choices of forum provisions may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other FlyMates and may discourage these types of lawsuits. Furthermore, the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies' certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive-forum provisions, and there can be no assurance that such provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find the exclusive-forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business.
Accounting & Financial Operations8 | 10.8%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
Our ability to use our net operating losses (NOLs) to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
As a public company, we are obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting, and if we fail to continue to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable laws and regulations could be impaired.As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Global Select Market (Nasdaq), and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming, or costly, and increase demand on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. It may require significant resources and management oversight to maintain and, if necessary, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard. As a result, management's attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. To comply with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which would increase our costs and expenses.
As a "large accelerated" filer, we are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Section 404), to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to maintain our internal controls, implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.
This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting and our independent registered public accounting firm is required to issue an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404. Furthermore, we will also have to file a more expansive proxy statement and are subject to shorter filing deadlines, which will require additional time and expense as well.
An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management's assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. We are required to disclose changes made in our internal control and procedures on a quarterly basis. To comply with the requirements of being a public company, we have undertaken and expect to need to continue to undertake various actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures, hiring risk professionals, accounting and internal audit staff, and engaging outside consultants, which will increase our operating expenses.
We are actively engaged in the ongoing costly process of maintaining compliance with Section 404. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing, and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective.
If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control, including as a result of a material weakness, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline, and we may be subject to investigation or sanctions by the SEC. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on Nasdaq.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common stock and do not currently intend to do so for the foreseeable future. We currently anticipate that we will retain all available funds and any future earnings for reinvestment to fund the development, operation, expansion and growth of our business and to fund our Repurchase Program and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. In addition, our senior secured revolving credit syndication loan currently prohibits us from paying dividends on our equity securities, and any future debt financing arrangement may contain terms prohibiting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to the appreciation of their stock. Therefore, the success of an investment in shares of our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in their value. There is no guarantee that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our stockholders have purchased their shares.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
We have a history of operating losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.We were incorporated in 2009 and although we have only generated net income for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2025, we have incurred net losses in the past, and may incur net losses in the future. We generated net income of $13.5 million and $2.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, and generated net loss of $8.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, respectively, and net income of $4.4 million during the six months ended June 30, 2026 and a net loss of $16.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2025. In addition, as of June 30, 2026, we had an accumulated deficit of $153.0 million. We have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods and we are not certain whether or when we will obtain a high enough volume of revenue to sustain or increase our growth or maintain profitability in the future. We also expect our costs and expenses to increase in future periods, which could negatively affect our future operating results if our revenue does not increase. In particular, we intend to continue to strategically and selectively invest in headcount, to further develop our solutions, including introducing new functionality, and to expand our marketing programs and sales teams to drive new client adoption, expand strategic partner integrations, and support international and product expansion. Our operating results are also impacted by the mix of our revenue generated from our different revenue sources, which include transaction revenue and platform and other fee revenue. Changes in our revenue mix from quarter to quarter, including those derived from cross-border or domestic currency transactions, will impact our margins, and we may not be able to grow our gross margin adequately to achieve or sustain profitability. In addition, the mix of payment methods utilized by our clients' customers may have an impact on our margins given that our costs associated with certain payment methods, such as credit cards, are higher than other payment methods accepted by our solutions, such as bank transfers. Due to the cross-border nature of much of our business, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, slowdowns in international mobility and other regional considerations may affect our operating results. We will also face increased compliance and security costs associated with growth, the expansion of our client base, and being a public company. Our efforts to grow our business may be costlier than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our increased operating expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for several reasons, including the other risks described herein, and unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays, and other unknown events. If we are unable to sustain profitability, the value of our business and common stock may significantly decrease.
If the assumptions we use to plan our business are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our markets, or if we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, it may be difficult to maintain profitability. Our financial results from any prior quarterly or annual periods should not be relied upon as an indication of our future revenue or growth in revenue, gross profit, gross margins, volume of payments processed, or other operating results.
In addition, we expect to continue to expend substantial management time, financial and other resources on:
- sales, marketing, relationship management and client support, including an expansion of our sales organization, and new client support and payer retention initiatives;- our technology infrastructure, including systems architecture, scalability, leveraging AI, availability, performance, and security;- our technology development, including investments in our technology development team and the development of new solutions and new functionality;- expanding into more international markets;- retaining existing clients, attracting new clients and increasing the number of our clients' customers that use our solutions;- acquisitions or strategic investments;- regulatory compliance and risk management; and - general administration, including increased insurance, legal and accounting expenses associated with being a public company.
These investments may not result in increased revenue growth in our business. If we are unable to increase our revenue at a rate sufficient to offset the increase in our costs, our business, financial position and operating results will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability over the long term.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
We have a short operating history at our current scale in a rapidly and significantly evolving industry and, as a result, our past results may not be indicative of future operating performance.We have a short history operating at our current scale in a rapidly and significantly evolving industry that may not develop in a manner favorable to our business. This relatively short operating history makes it difficult to assess our future performance with certainty. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we may encounter.
Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to, among other things:
- cost-effectively acquire new clients, retain existing clients, increase the number of our clients' customers that use our solutions and sell additional functionality to our clients;- maintain and increase our market share;- avoid pricing pressure on our solutions which would compress our margins;- effectively market our solutions;- enhance our existing solutions and develop new solutions;- increase awareness of our brand and maintain our reputation;- develop new technologies, adapt to technology changes and evolving industry standards and to incorporate new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, into our solutions;- offer seamless experience for our clients and their customers, including all user facing attributes ranging from the user interface to client and customer support;- the success of our comprehensive, company-wide digital operational and systems transformation program;- anticipate and respond to microeconomic and macroeconomic changes;- expand our solutions and geographic reach, including with respect to B2B and travel payments;- our decision to exit certain markets, or our inability to process payments from certain jurisdictions we had previously served;- anticipate and effectively respond to changing trends and the preferences of clients and their customers;- compete effectively;- avoid interruptions in our business from information technology (IT) downtime, an inability to manage emerging technology risks (including those posed by generative AI or other tools), cybersecurity breaches, or labor stoppages;- effectively manage our growth;- effectively identify and manage risks, including foreign currency exchange risk;- hire, integrate, and retain talented people at all levels of our organization;- maintain the quality of our technology infrastructure;- compliance with multiple, conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including with respect to employment, tax, competition, workplace and sustainability and other social matters;- global pandemics, or other public health emergencies;- retain our existing proprietary global network of banking and other payment partners and add new banking and other payment partners to scale our business; and - retain our existing technology partners that allow us to provide alternative payment methods and add new technology partners to scale our business.
If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this section titled "Risk Factors", our business and operating results will be adversely affected.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 6
We may experience quarterly and annual fluctuations in our operating results, as well as our key metrics, due to a number of factors which make our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or our guidance.Our operating results, and key metrics, may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Our past results should not be relied on as an indication of our future performance. If our operating results or key metrics fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts or below any guidance we may provide to the market, the price of our common stock could decline substantially.
Our operating results have varied in the past and are expected to continue to do so in the future. In addition to other risk factors listed in this section titled "Risk Factors", factors that may affect our quarterly and annual operating results, business and financial condition include the following:
- demand for our solutions and the number, volume and timing of payments processed;- timing of tuition payments;- actual or threatened government restrictions or related suspensions, limitations or delays on the issuances of visas, such as those being implemented in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and the U.S.;- market acceptance of our current and future solutions;- our revenue mix in a particular quarter;- the mix of payment methods and currencies utilized by our clients' customers in a particular quarter;- a slowdown or delay in spending on IT and software by our current and/or prospective clients;- sales cycles and performance of our direct and indirect sales force;- budgeting and implementation cycles of our current or potential clients;- foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations;- the management, performance and expansion of our domestic and international operations;- the rate of renewals of contracts with our clients;- changes in the competitive dynamics of our markets;- our ability to control and predict costs, including our operating expenses;- clients delaying purchasing decisions, including in anticipation of new products or product enhancements by us or our competitors;- the seasonality and cyclical nature of our business;- failure to successfully manage or integrate any acquisitions, including our most recent acquisition of Sertifi;- the outcome or publicity surrounding any pending or threatened lawsuits or government investigations;- general economic and political conditions in our domestic and international markets, including heightened interest rates, imposition of tariffs, inflation and fluctuations in supply chains, regional or global economic recession, and restrictions on cross-border travel or commerce;- changes in the level of scrutiny applied by regulators, clients, and investors on our social impact efforts;- unexpected events, including those resulting from climate change, international or civil conflicts and wars, or other geopolitical events;- expected or actual extended U.S. federal government shutdowns, priorities of the U.S. presidential administration and related changes in laws, regulations or policies, which among other things could result in increased limitations on visa issuances, geopolitical uncertainty and impact educational financial aid payments; and - global pandemics, or other public health emergencies and the responses thereto.
In addition, we may in the future experience fluctuations in our gross and operating margins due to changes in the mix of our domestic and international payments and the mix of payment methods, including an increase in the use of credit cards, and currencies used by our clients' customers to make payments.
Based upon the factors described above and those described elsewhere in this section titled "Risk Factors", we have a limited ability to forecast the amount and mix of future revenues and expenses, which may cause our operating results to fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 7
We expect our revenue mix to vary over time, which could affect our gross profit, gross margin and results of operations.We expect our revenue mix to vary over time due to a number of factors. Shifts in our business mix from quarter to quarter could produce substantial variation in revenue recognized. Further, our gross profit, gross margins and results of operations could be affected by changes in revenue mix and costs, together with numerous other factors, including payment methods and currencies, pricing pressure from competitors, increases in credit card usage on our solutions and associated network fees, changes in payment volume across verticals and the portion of such payment volume for which we perform foreign exchange. Any one of these factors or the cumulative effects of certain of these factors may result in significant fluctuations in our gross profit, gross margin and results of operations. This variability and unpredictability could result in our failure to meet internal expectations or those of securities analysts or investors for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations for these or any other reasons, the market price of our common stock could decline.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 8
Our estimates of market opportunity and our ability to capture a meaningful share of this payment volume may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.Our market opportunity estimates, including those we have generated ourselves and our ability to capture a meaningful share of this payment volume, are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. The variables that go into the calculation of our market opportunity are subject to change over time, and there is no guarantee that any payment volumes covered by our market opportunity estimates will materialize in clients using our solutions as anticipated or generate any particular level of revenue for us. Any expansion in our market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our business and those of our competitors. Even if the market in which we compete meets the size estimates and growth forecasted, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all. Our growth is subject to many factors, including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties.
Debt & Financing5 | 6.8%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
We enable the transfer of large sums of funds to our clients daily, and are subject to the risk of errors, which could result in financial losses, damage to our reputation, or loss of trust in our brand, which would harm our business and financial results.Debt & Financing - Risk 2
Our management of our operating funds and client funds may be reliant on a limited number of our banking partners and other financial institutions.As to certain verticals that we may choose to serve, as well as in selected geographical locations, our network of banking and other financial institution partners may be limited. As a result, although we seek to distribute financial and credit risk among multiple financial institutions, from time to time there may be a concentration of operating funds or client fund flows among a more limited number of financial institution partners. These partners are generally heavily regulated by national and local governments, and in some locations may be involved in a multitude of related businesses or part of larger, higher-profile financial conglomerates. These partners and suppliers are often subject to strict regulatory requirements and enforcement actions or may experience failures to satisfy capital adequacy conditions that result in a suspension of operations, seizure of assets or closure, which could materially impact the safeguarding of our operating funds or client funds. If we are not able to access, or are delayed in accessing, our own funds or if client funds were in any way impacted, we could be adversely impacted, including by experiencing reputational damage and claims for restitution, potentially interfering with our existing client relationships or making us less attractive to potential new clients.
Debt & Financing - Risk 3
Our marketable securities portfolio is subject to credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks that could cause its value to decline significantly and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.We maintain an investment portfolio of marketable securities. These investments are subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks that can affect the income that we receive from our investments, the net realizable value of our investments, and our ability to sell them, which may be exacerbated by market downturns or events that affect global financial markets. As a result, we may experience a significant decline in value or loss of liquidity of our investments, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. We attempt to mitigate these risks through diversification of our investments and continuous monitoring of our portfolio's overall risk profile, but the value of our investments may nevertheless decline. To the extent that we increase the amount of our security investments in the future, these risks could be exacerbated.
Debt & Financing - Risk 4
Volatility in the banking and financial services ecosystems may impact our bank partnerships and relationships, which could adversely affect our operations and liquidity.Instability and volatility in the banking and financial services ecosystems, including limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect the banking ecosystem, or concerns or rumors about any such events or other similar risks, has and may in the future increase uncertainty in the global economy and the risk of a recession. Volatility in the banking and financial services sectors may impact our bank partnerships and relationships, which could adversely affect our operations and liquidity.
Our cash equivalents include money market funds, which are AAA-rated and comprised of liquid, high-quality debt securities issued by the U.S. government. Our access to our cash and cash equivalents and client funds could be significantly impacted in volatile markets given our concentration in government money market funds or impaired by the financial institutions with which we have arrangements directly, if such financial institutions are facing liquidity constraints or failures. We regularly maintain cash balances at third-party financial institutions in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance limit. A failure of a depository institution to return these deposits, or if a depository institution is subject to other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets, could further impact access to our invested cash or cash equivalents and could adversely impact our operating liquidity, financial performance and ability to recover or repay client funds. If one or more of our bank partners were to fail and enter receivership proceedings, we may not be able to withdraw our or our clients' funds in excess of FDIC insurance limits, or may not be able to withdraw such funds in a timely manner, which could adversely affect our brand, business and results of operations, and may lead to regulatory or other claims or litigation, which may be costly to address.
In addition, investor concerns regarding the U.S. or international financial systems could result in less favorable commercial financing terms, including higher interest rates or costs and tighter financial and operating covenants, or systemic limitations on access to credit and liquidity sources, thereby making it more difficult for us to acquire financing on acceptable terms or at all. Any material decline in available funding or our ability to access our cash and cash equivalents could adversely impact our ability to meet our operating expenses, result in breaches of our contractual obligations or result in violations of federal or state wage and hour laws, any of which could have material adverse impacts on our operations and liquidity.
Debt & Financing - Risk 5
We may require additional capital to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.We have funded our operations since inception primarily through equity and debt financings, sales of our solutions, and fees. We cannot be certain if our operations will continue to generate sufficient cash to fully fund our ongoing operations or the growth of our business. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business, which may require us to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to us, if at all. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to invest in future growth opportunities, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. If we incur additional debt, the debt holders would have rights senior to holders of common stock to make claims on our assets, and the terms of any debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock. Furthermore, if we issue additional equity securities, stockholders will experience dilution, and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock. Because our decision to issue securities in the future will depend on numerous considerations, including factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of any future issuances of debt or equity securities. As a result, our stockholders bear the risk of future issuances of debt or equity securities reducing the value of our common stock and diluting their interests.
Corporate Activity and Growth7 | 9.5%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
Our business could be harmed as a result of the risks associated with our acquisitions.Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 2
If we cannot maintain our company culture as we grow, our success and our business may be harmed.We believe our culture has been a key contributor to our success to date and that the critical nature of the solutions that we provide promotes a sense of greater purpose and fulfillment in our FlyMates. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel, which is critical to our growth, and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. As we grow and develop the infrastructure of a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our culture. If we fail to maintain our culture, our business and competitive position may be adversely affected.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3
We will continue to incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to compliance with our public company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.As a public company, we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses as a result of operating as a public company, which increased starting in 2023 as a result of becoming a "large accelerated" filer. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Dodd-Frank, the listing requirements of the Nasdaq, and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with these requirements and interacting with public company investors and securities analysts. These obligations and constituents require significant attention from our management team and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we will incur as a public company or the specific timing of such costs.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 4
We may not be able to scale our business quickly enough to meet our growing client base, and if we are not able to grow efficiently, our operating results could be harmed.As usage of our solutions grows and we sign additional clients and technology partners, we will need to devote additional resources to improving and maintaining our infrastructure and global payments network and integrating with third-party applications to maintain the performance of our solutions. In addition, we will need to appropriately scale our internal business systems, including client support, our 24x7 multilingual support to clients' customers and risk and compliance operations, to serve our growing client base. We are currently actively engaged in a comprehensive, company-wide operational and systems transformation program, which encompasses a re-architecting of our data infrastructure, consolidation and upgrade of our enterprise and billing systems and underlying operating models, alongside the strategic alignment of our organizational structure, talent, and internal processes. Ultimately, this foundational work is intended to position the Company for continued scalability and long-term growth.
Any failure of or delay in these efforts could result in interruptions to our solutions, impaired system performance, and reduced client satisfaction, resulting in decreased sales to clients, lower renewal rates by existing clients, the issuance of service credits, or requested refunds, all of which could hurt our revenue growth. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our solutions to clients and their customers and could result in lost client opportunities and lower renewal rates, any of which could hurt our revenue growth, client loyalty, and our reputation. Even if we are successful in these efforts to scale our business, they will be expensive and complex, and require the dedication of significant management time and attention. We could also face inefficiencies or service disruptions as a result of our efforts to scale or improve our internal infrastructure. We cannot be sure that the expansion and improvements to our internal infrastructure will be effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all, and such failures could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 5
Our risk management efforts may not be effective to prevent fraudulent activities by our clients, FlyMates or other third parties, which could expose us to material financial losses and liability and otherwise harm our business.Our software provides payment facilitation solutions for a large number of our clients and their customers. We are responsible for performing KYC reviews of our clients, sanctions screening their customers, and monitoring transactions for fraud. We have been and may continue to be targeted by parties who seek to commit acts of financial fraud using techniques such as stolen identities and bank accounts, advanced uses of AI for fraudulent purposes, compromised business email accounts, employee or insider fraud, account takeover, false applications, and fake invoicing. We may suffer losses from acts of financial fraud committed by our clients, our clients' customers and purported customers, our FlyMates and payment partners or third parties.
The techniques used to perpetrate fraud are continually evolving and we may not be able to identify all risks created by new solutions or functionality. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, to enable us to prevent or mitigate the risks we have identified, or to identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. Furthermore, our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may contain errors or our FlyMates or agents may commit mistakes or errors in judgment as a result of which we may suffer large financial losses. The software-driven and highly automated nature of our solutions could enable criminals and those committing fraud to steal significant amounts of money accessing our solutions. As greater numbers of our clients' customers use our solutions, and we serve clients in industries that are at higher risk for fraudulent activity, our exposure to material risk losses from a single client, or from a small number of clients, will increase. In addition, our clients or their customers may suffer losses from acts of financial fraud by third parties posing as us through account takeover, credential harvesting, use of stolen identities and various other techniques, which could harm our reputation, consume significant time of our compliance, security and client relations teams to investigate and remediate, or prompt us to reimburse our clients for such losses in order to maintain client business relationships.
Our current business, the changing and uncertain economic, geopolitical and regulatory environment, and our anticipated domestic and international growth will continue to place significant demands on our risk management and compliance efforts. As our business grows and becomes more complex, we will need to continue developing and improving and investing in our risk management infrastructure, policies, procedures, techniques, and processes. As techniques used to perpetrate fraud on our solutions evolve, we may need to modify our solutions to mitigate fraud risks. As our business grows and becomes more complex, we may be less able to forecast and carry appropriate reserves in our books for fraud related losses. Further, these types of fraudulent activities targeting our solutions can also expose us to civil and criminal liability, governmental and regulatory sanctions as well as potentially cause us to be in breach of our contractual obligations to our clients and partners.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 6
We undertook restructuring activities that may not yield their intended efficiencies and could strain resources, negatively impact workforce morale, and slow down execution of our strategic plans.In February 2025, we announced a restructuring plan designed to improve operational efficiencies, reduce operating costs and better align our workforce with current business needs, top strategic priorities and key growth opportunities (Restructuring Plan). As part of the Restructuring Plan, we implemented a reduction in force. These actions and other additional measures we might take to reduce costs may potentially result in a strain on our workforce, divert management attention, yield attrition beyond our intended reduction in force, negatively impact employee morale and productivity, the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise, cause us to delay, limit, reduce or eliminate certain strategic plans or otherwise interfere with our ability to operate and grow our business effectively, each of which could have an adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. Additionally, as we are operating our business with a different level and mix of employees, we face additional risk that we might not be able to execute on our strategic plans and product roadmap, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. Moreover, the workforce reduction we implemented, and any other future reductions, may negatively impact our ability to attract, integrate, retain and motivate highly qualified employees, make it difficult for us to pursue new opportunities and initiatives, and may harm our reputation with current or prospective employees.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 7
Our operational and business portfolio reviews may not result in improvements to our financial performance, strategy, or operations, and we face a number of risks related to such reviews.Our operational and business portfolio reviews are ongoing, and are expected to encompass geographies, products, verticals, and cost structure, and explore various options and an operational cost-saving review to identify efficiencies and synergies across all of our business areas, including opportunities to combine and optimize systems and processes. Implementation of a go forward plan and any other cost-saving initiatives, including possible future restructuring efforts, may be costly and disruptive to our business, the expected costs and charges may be greater than forecasted, and the estimated cost savings may be lower than forecasted. We may not achieve the desired strategic, operational, and financial benefits of any actions previously taken, or taken in the future, as a result of our operational and business portfolio reviews. Further, we may not be able to successfully execute the desired changes. During the pendency of these reviews or any transaction that may occur as a result of these reviews, we may be subject to risks related to a decline in the business or employee morale and turnover, as well as distraction of management from our business and clients, and investors may not react favorably to our decisions, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and the market price of our common stock. If we are unable to successfully complete our operational and business portfolio reviews or we are unable to complete the proposed outcomes of these reviews or they do not meet our strategic objectives, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We are continuing to carefully consider the full range of options for maximizing value to our shareholders, including potential transactions with third parties and other strategic and financial alternatives. There can be no assurance that the operational and business portfolio reviews will result in any particular action or that a transaction will be consummated, nor can there be any assurance regarding the timing of any action or transaction. We have not set a deadline or definitive timetable for the completion of our reviews, and we can provide no assurance that any actions taken or any transaction or other strategic alternative we may pursue will achieve the anticipated cost savings, operating efficiencies or have a positive impact on our results of operations or financial condition.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 17/74 (23%)Above Sector Average
Competition1 | 1.4%
Competition - Risk 1
The markets in which we participate are competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.Demand3 | 4.1%
Demand - Risk 1
Our clients in the education sector may be adversely affected by decreases in enrollment, limitations or other restrictions on student visas, pressure on tuition costs, or increased operating expenses, which may reduce demand for our solutions.Demand - Risk 2
Our business could be adversely affected if our clients or their customers are not satisfied with the timing or quality of implementation services provided by us or our partners.Our business depends on our ability to satisfy our clients and their customers with respect to our solutions as well as the services that are performed to help our clients and their customers use the features and functions of our solutions. Services are usually performed by us, and are also on occasion provided together with a third-party partner. If our clients or their customers are not satisfied with the functionality of our solutions or the services that we or a third-party partner provide, such dissatisfaction could damage our ability to retain our current clients or expand our clients' or their customers' use of our solutions. In addition, any negative publicity and reviews that we may receive which is related to our client relationships may further damage our business and may invite enhanced regulatory scrutiny at the federal and state level in the United States as well as internationally.
Demand - Risk 3
Our financial and operating results are subject to seasonality and cyclicality.Our financial and operating results are subject to seasonal trends. For example, the volume of education tuition processed typically increases in the northern hemisphere during the summer and early fall months, as well as at year end, as students and their families seek to pay tuition costs for the fall semester, the spring semester, or the entire academic year, respectively. We expect this seasonality of education tuition processing to continue and expect it to impact the amount of processing fees that we earn and the level of expenses we incur to generate tuition payment volume and process the higher volume activity in a particular fiscal quarter.
Sales & Marketing12 | 16.2%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
If our efforts to attract new clients and increase the number of our clients' customers that use our solutions are unsuccessful, our revenue growth and operating results will be adversely affected.Sales & Marketing - Risk 2
If we are unable to expand our direct and channel sales capabilities, grow our marketing reach and increase sales productivity, we may not be able to generate increased revenues.We believe that our future growth will depend on the continued development of our direct sales force and its ability to obtain new clients and to manage our existing client base. Our ability to increase our client base and achieve broader market acceptance of our solutions will depend to a significant extent on our ability to expand our sales and marketing organizations, and to deploy our sales and marketing resources efficiently. We intend to continue to strategically increase our number of direct sales professionals and to expand our relationships with new strategic channel partners. These efforts will require us to invest significant financial and other resources. New hires require training and take time to achieve full productivity. Similarly, new channel partnerships often take time to develop and may never yield results, as they require new partners to understand the services and solutions we offer, and how to position our value within the market. We cannot be certain that recent and future new hires or partner relationships will become as productive as necessary or that we will be able to hire enough qualified individuals or build effective channel sales in the future. If we are unable to hire, develop, integrate, and retain talented and effective sales personnel, if our new and existing sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels, or if our sales, channel strategy and marketing programs and advertising are not effective, we may not be able to expand our business and grow our revenue, which may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 3
If we are unable to retain our current clients, attract new clients and increase the number of our clients' customers that use our solutions or sell additional functionality to our clients, our revenue growth and operating results will be adversely affected.To increase our revenue, in addition to acquiring new clients, we must continue to retain existing clients, increase the volume of payments made by our clients' customers and sell additional functionality to our clients. We expect to derive a significant portion of our revenue from the renewal of existing clients' contracts and sales of additional features and solutions to existing clients. As the market for our solutions matures, solutions evolve, and competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated products or services that are perceived to compete with our solutions, our ability to attract (and our clients' ability to attract) new customers and maintain our current client base and clients' customer usage could be hindered. As a result, we may be unable to retain existing clients or increase the usage of our solutions by them or their customers, which would have an adverse effect on our business, revenue, gross profit, gross margins, and other operating results, and accordingly, on the trading price of our common stock.
As the market for our solutions matures, or as new or existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with our solutions, we may experience pricing pressure. This competition and pricing pressure could have an adverse effect on our ability to retain existing clients or attract new clients at prices that are consistent with our pricing model, operating budget and expected operating margins. In particular, it has become more common in the education sector for competitors to offer generous revenue sharing arrangements for clients we target. Our business could be adversely affected if clients or their customers perceive that features incorporated into alternative products reduce the need for our solutions or if they prefer to use competitive services. If we are unable to attract new clients and increase the number of our clients' customers that use our solutions, our revenue growth and operating results will be adversely affected. Further, in an effort to attract new clients and increase usage by their customers, we may need to offer simpler, lower-priced payment options, which may reduce our revenue and other operating results.
Our ability to sell additional functionality to our existing clients may require more sophisticated and costly sales efforts, especially for our larger clients with more senior management and established accounts receivable solutions. Similarly, the rate at which our clients deploy additional solutions from us depends on several factors, including general economic conditions, the availability of client technical personnel to implement our solutions, and the pricing of additional functionality. If our efforts to sell additional functionality to our clients are not successful, our business and growth prospects would suffer.
Contracts with our clients generally have a stated initial term of three years, are not subject to termination for convenience and automatically renew for one-year subsequent terms. Our clients may negotiate terms less advantageous to us upon renewal, which may reduce our revenue. If our clients fail to renew their contracts, renew their contracts upon terms less favorable to us or at lower fee levels or fail to purchase new solutions from us, our revenue may decline or our future revenue growth may be constrained. In addition, certain of our clients are subject to requirements to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) to open up competition for their ongoing business notwithstanding their satisfaction with our solutions. In order to retain their business, we may be required to accept terms or pricing conditions less favorable to us than would be the case with automatic renewal of an existing contract. Should any of our clients terminate their relationship with us after implementation has begun, we would not only lose our time, effort and resources invested in such implementation, but we would also have lost the opportunity to leverage those resources to build a relationship with other clients over that same period of time.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 4
The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving and the market for technology-enabled payment services that empower healthcare clients and their customers is relatively immature and unproven. If we are not successful in promoting the benefits of our solutions, our growth may be limited.The market for our payment solutions is subject to rapid and significant changes. The market for technology-enabled payment services that empower healthcare clients and their customers is characterized by rapid technological change, new product and service introductions, increasing patient financial responsibility, consumerism and engagement, the ongoing shift to value-based care and reimbursement models, and the entrance of non-traditional competitors. In addition, there may be a limited-time opportunity to achieve and maintain a significant share of this market due in part to the rapidly evolving nature of the healthcare and technology industries and the substantial resources available to our existing and potential competitors. The market for technology-enabled payment services that empower healthcare clients and their customers is relatively new and unproven, and it is uncertain whether this market will achieve and sustain high levels of demand and market adoption.
In order to remain competitive, we are continually involved in a number of projects to compete with these new market entrants by developing new solutions, growing our client base and penetrating new markets. Some of these projects include the expansion of our integration capabilities and the expansion of our mobile solutions. These projects carry risks, such as cost overruns, delays in delivery, performance problems and lack of acceptance by our clients. Our integration partners may also decide to develop and offer their own patient engagement solutions that are similar to our solutions. In addition, the decisions we make on allocation of engineering resources, reliance on, integration with or discontinuance of, legacy systems or those acquired in acquisition, or the pace at which we remain technologically current within our internal systems and customer payment platforms, may negatively affect the morale of our engineering teams and the payment experiences our clients wish to feature to their customers. We may lose engineering talent or healthcare clients as a result, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Our success depends on providing high-quality payment solutions that healthcare clients use to improve their financial and operational performance, allowing them to collect payments and enhance their revenue lifecycle management objectives. If we cannot adapt to rapidly evolving industry standards and technology and increasingly sophisticated and varied healthcare client and customer payment needs, our existing technology could become undesirable, obsolete or harm our reputation. We must continue to invest significant resources in our personnel and technology in a timely and cost-effective manner in order to enhance our existing solutions and introduce new high-quality solutions that existing clients and potential new clients will want. Our operating results would also suffer if our innovations are not responsive to the needs of our existing clients or potential new clients, are not appropriately timed with market opportunity, are not effectively brought to market or significantly increase our operating costs. If our new or modified product and service innovations are not responsive to the preferences of healthcare clients and their customers, emerging industry standards or regulatory changes, are not appropriately timed with market opportunity or are not effectively brought to market, we may lose existing clients or be unable to obtain new clients and our results of operations may suffer.
We believe demand for our payment solutions in the healthcare industry has been driven in large part by more patient responsibility for out-of-pocket spend, a trend towards higher deductibles for health care services, increased digitization in payments, and the tailoring of payment offers and increased patient engagement. Our success also depends to a substantial extent on the ability of our solutions to increase the volume of our clients' customers payments, and our ability to demonstrate the value of our solutions to our clients. If our existing clients do not recognize or acknowledge the benefits of our solutions or our solutions do not drive payment volume, then the market for our solutions might not develop at all, or it might develop more slowly than we expect, either of which could adversely affect our operating results. A significant decrease in the payment volume and resulting revenue from our clients and their customers in the healthcare industry may have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
In addition, we have limited insight into trends that might develop and affect our healthcare business. We might make errors in predicting and reacting to relevant business, legal and regulatory trends and healthcare reform, which could harm our business. If any of these events occur, it could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Finally, our competitors, including major EHR providers, may have the ability to devote more financial and operational resources than we can to developing new technologies and services, including services that provide improved operating functionality, and adding features to their existing service offerings. Relationships with companies in the EHR space and business focused on revenue lifecycle management are critical to leverage if we are to add to our healthcare customer portfolio. However, intense competition and rising costs experienced by certain major EHR providers has resulted, in certain cases, in increased financial strain on these businesses, and in at least one notable instance, an action to seek bankruptcy protection. To the extent we have outstanding amounts owed to us by companies that seek bankruptcy protection or cease operations, it may become difficult for us to be paid in full in a timely manner, if at all. Many of these companies may offer products and services similar to ours and may have greater name recognition, longer operating histories, stronger and more dependent client relationships, larger marketing budgets, and greater resources than us. If successful, their development efforts could render our solutions less desirable, resulting in the loss of our existing clients or a reduction in the fees we generate from our solutions.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 5
Changes to payment card networks fees or rules could harm our business.We are required to comply with Mastercard, American Express, and Visa payment card network operating rules and the rules of other regional card (such as China UnionPay or JCB) or payment providers, in connection with our solutions. We have agreed to reimburse our merchant acquirers for any fines they are assessed by payment card networks as a result of any rule violations by us. We may also be directly liable to the payment card networks for rule violations. The payment card networks set and interpret the card operating rules. The payment card networks could adopt new operating rules or interpret or reinterpret existing rules that we or our processors might find difficult or even impossible to follow, or costly to implement. For example, the card networks could adopt new rules or reinterpret existing rules to substantially modify how we offer credit card payment methods to our clients, or impose new fees or costs (including demanding a cash reserve from Flywire) that could negatively impact our margins.
Card networks also could modify security or fraud detection methodologies that could have a downstream impact on our business, and force us to change our solutions, payment experience or security protocols, which may increase our operating costs. We also may seek to introduce other card-related solutions in the future, which would entail additional operating rules. As a result of any violations of rules, new rules being implemented, or increased fees, we could lose our ability to offer certain cards as a payment method to our clients' customers, or such payments could become prohibitively expensive for us or for our clients.
Additionally, from time to time, American Express and the card networks, including Visa and Mastercard, increase the fees that they charge processors. Changes in pricing, fee structures, or network rules by American Express or other card networks could adversely affect our costs and margins. We rely on global card networks, including American Express, to process certain payment types, and these networks may from time to time modify their interchange rates, assessments, discount fees, or other pricing components, or apply different cost structures based on the nature of an underlying transaction (such as education, travel, healthcare, or other categories) or the manner in which Flywire or our transactions are classified under their rules. If a card network were to reclassify Flywire, our customers, or specific payment flows, or to increase fees applicable to one or more of our core verticals, we may be unable to fully pass those increased costs on to customers without adversely affecting demand, competitiveness, or customer relationships. We could attempt to pass these increases along to our clients and their customers, but this strategy might result in the loss of clients to our competitors who do not pass along the increases. If competitive practices prevent us from passing along the higher fees to our clients and their customers in the future, we may have to absorb all or a portion of such increases, which may increase our operating costs and reduce our profit margins. If we are unable to offer credit cards as a payment method to our clients' customers, our business would be adversely affected.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 6
If we are unable to enter or expand new client verticals or sub-verticals, including our relatively new B2B payment vertical, or if our solutions for any new vertical fail to achieve market acceptance, our operating results could be adversely affected and we may be required to reconsider our growth strategy.Our growth strategy is influenced, in part, on our ability to expand into new client verticals and sub-verticals, including our relatively new B2B payment vertical. The B2B payment vertical represents a relatively new market for us, and we have limited prior experience with the key ERP platforms that are critical to the B2B payment vertical. Accordingly, our lack of experience in the B2B payment vertical and with the key ERP platforms may result in operational difficulties, which could cause a delay or failure to integrate and realize the benefits of entering into this vertical. In addition, B2B payments carry a higher risk profile than education or healthcare receivables, and we will be required to devote more resources to manage the increased risk inherent in these payments. Banking and other payment services partners may be more reluctant to support B2B payment flows, and countries with currency controls are less likely to permit payments of a B2B nature. Our payment volume and resulting revenue from serving the B2B vertical is highly sensitive to restrictions on the cross-border commerce on which our clients rely, and declining economic conditions, increases in the costs or unavailability of imported goods and services due to imposition of tariffs, sanctions or other restrictions, could adversely affect our development of this vertical or our overall operating results and financial condition. The payment volume and resulting revenue from our B2B payment vertical during the year ended December 31, 2025 represented, and is expected for the foreseeable future to represent, less than 10% of our total payment volume and revenue. We expect both the payment volume and the revenue from this vertical to grow over time. As such, failure to grow our payment volume and resulting revenue from our B2B payment vertical may have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We may be unable to identify new verticals or sub-verticals that meet our criteria for selecting industries that our solutions are ideally suited to address. In addition, our market validation process may not support entry into selected verticals due to our perception of the overall market opportunity or of the willingness of market participants within those verticals to adopt our solutions.
Even if we choose to enter new verticals or sub-verticals, our market validation process does not guarantee our success. We may be unable to tailor our solutions for a new vertical or, in the event that we enter a new vertical by way of a strategic acquisition, we may be unable to leverage the acquired platform in time to take advantage of the identified market opportunity, and any delay in our time-to-market could expose us to additional competition or other factors that could impede our success. In addition, any solution we develop or acquire for a new vertical may not provide the functionality required by potential clients or their customers and, as a result, may not achieve widespread market acceptance within the new vertical. To the extent we choose to enter new verticals, whether organically or via strategic acquisition, we may invest significant resources to develop and expand the functionality of our solutions to meet the needs of customers in those verticals, which investments will occur in advance of our realization of revenue from them.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 7
Consolidation in the payment processing or enablement industry could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.Many payment processing or enablement industry participants are consolidating to create larger and more integrated financial processing systems with greater market power. We expect regulatory and economic conditions to result in additional consolidation in the healthcare industry in the future. As consolidation accelerates, the economies of scale of our clients' organizations may grow. If a client experiences sizable growth following consolidation, it may determine that it no longer needs to rely on us and may reduce its demand for our solutions. In addition, as payment processing providers consolidate to create larger and more integrated systems with greater market power, these providers may try to use their market power to negotiate fee reductions for our solutions. Finally, consolidation may also result in the acquisition or future development by our clients of products and services that compete with our solutions. Any of these potential results of consolidation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 8
If we are unable to maintain or expand our ability to offer a variety of local and international payment methods for our clients to make available to their customers, or if we fail to continue to grow and develop preferred payment choices, our business may be materially and adversely affected.The continued growth and development of our proprietary global payments network will also depend on our ability to anticipate and adapt to changes in client and customer behavior. For example, behavior may change regarding the use of credit and debit card transactions, including the relative increased use of cash, cryptocurrencies, other emerging or alternative payment methods and credit card systems that may include strong regional preferences that we or our processing partners do not adequately support. Any failure to timely integrate emerging payment methods into our solutions, anticipate behavior changes, or contract with payment processing partners that support such emerging payment technologies could cause our clients to use our solutions less, resulting in a corresponding loss of revenue, in the event such methods become popular among their customers.
In particular, the emergence and growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, and related blockchain-based payment solutions may disrupt the traditional payments ecosystem in ways that could adversely affect our business. These technologies may enable new or existing competitors to offer cross-border payment and settlement services that are faster, lower cost, or otherwise more attractive than our solutions, including direct wallet-to-wallet transfers or alternative settlement rails that bypass intermediary financial institutions. As a result, merchants, payers, or financial institution partners in the verticals we serve may shift volume away from our platform or demand lower pricing, which could erode our revenue and margins. In addition, stablecoin- or cryptocurrency-based payment models may reduce foreign exchange spreads, transaction fees, or other economic components of our offerings, alter customer expectations regarding speed and transparency, and increase competition from fintech companies, payment networks, or technology providers that leverage these technologies. The regulatory treatment of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins remains uncertain and continues to evolve, and new frameworks could accelerate adoption or enable broader participation by competitors. If cryptocurrencies or stablecoins gain broader acceptance as payment or settlement mechanisms, or if we are unable to adapt our platform, pricing, or product strategy effectively in response to these developments, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be harmed.
The number and variety of the payment methods we offer or currencies we are able to service may not meet client expectations, or the costs borne by our clients' customers in completing payments may become unsuitable. Accordingly, we may need to change our pricing strategies or reduce our prices, which could harm our revenue, gross profit, and operating results.
We utilize a number of payment providers to clear and settle transactions for our clients, including payments providers such as China UnionPay Co. Ltd. and Adyen N.V. If the services provided by these partners become unavailable due to extended outages or interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices, or due to regulatory restrictions or for any other reason, our expenses could increase and our ability to process certain payments could be materially interrupted, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, our agreements with these providers include certain terms and conditions. These providers have broad discretion to change their terms of service and other policies with respect to our business, and those changes may be unfavorable to us. Therefore, we believe that maintaining successful partnerships with these payment providers is critical to our success.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 9
We handle cross-border and domestic payments and plan to expand our solutions to new clients, to accept and settle payments in new countries and in new currencies, and to increase our global network to allow us to offer local and alternative payment methods, creating a variety of operational challenges; additionally, our domestic and international operations subject us to increased risks, which could harm our business.Our business is subject to risks inherent in conducting business globally, including cross-border payments and domestic payments in the United States and certain other markets. Our handling of domestic and cross-border payments to our clients generates a significant portion of our revenues, with a substantial portion of such revenues coming from payments processed from Asia (including India, China and Korea). We expect that international revenues will continue to account for a significant percentage of total net revenues for the foreseeable future, and that in particular, the proportion of our revenue from Asia will continue to increase. Current events, including the potential implementation of tariffs, the possibility of renegotiated trade deals and international tax law treaties, priorities of the U.S. presidential administration and related changes in laws, regulations or policies, United States-China and Canada-India diplomatic and trade friction, heightened tensions between China and Taiwan and the continuation or escalation of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas and Israel, the U.S., and Iran, respectively, create a level of uncertainty, and potentially increased complexity, for multinational companies. These uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our business and our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, international operations are subject to various risks which could have a material adverse effect on those operations or our business as a whole, including:
- foreign currency exchange rate volatility;- adverse economic conditions in the United States and globally, including economic slowdown, heightened interest rates, inflation, recession concerns and the disruption, volatility and tightening of credit and capital markets;- risks related to compliance with multiple complex, potentially conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations;- local licensing and reporting obligations or the imposition of currency controls which make it impossible or increasingly difficult for our clients to collect payments from international customers;- local regulatory and legal obligations related to privacy, data protection, data localization, and user protections;- the need to localize our solutions, including offering clients and their customers the ability to transact business in the local currency and adapting our solutions to local preferences, in markets in which we may have limited or no experience;- trade barriers, tariffs and changes in trade regulations;- the impact of government sanctions on our ability to offer services in a region, such as sanctions issued by the U.S. and other countries against Russia;- difficulties in developing, staffing, and managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences;- stringent local labor laws and regulations;- limitations on the repatriation of cash, including imposition or increase of withholding and other taxes on remittances and other payments by foreign subsidiaries;- diplomatic friction, political or social unrest, war or other military conflict, including the continuation or escalation of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas and Israel, the U.S., and Iran, respectively, economic instability, repression, or human rights issues;- natural disasters, global pandemics or other public health emergencies, acts of war, and terrorism;- compliance with U.S. laws and foreign laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the U.K. Bribery Act, and other local anti-corruption laws;- compliance with U.S. and foreign laws designed to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities;- retaliatory tariffs and restrictions limiting free movement of currency and an unfavorable trade environment, including as a result of political conditions and changes in the laws, regulations or policies in the United States and elsewhere and as described in more detail below;- antitrust and competition regulations;- expanded compliance with potentially conflicting and changing laws of taxing jurisdictions where we conduct business and applicable U.S. tax laws as they relate to international operations, the complexity and adverse consequences of such tax laws, and potentially adverse tax consequences due to changes in such tax laws or levels of enforcement, including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes a minimum corporate tax which could result in an additional tax liability in a given year;- expected or actual extended federal government shutdowns or the priorities of the U.S. presidential administration and related changes in laws, regulations or policies;- national or regional differences in macroeconomic growth rates; and - increased difficulties in collecting accounts receivable.
Foreign operations may also expose us to political, social, regulatory and economic uncertainties affecting a country or region, or to political hostility to investments by foreign or private equity investors. Many financial markets are not as developed or as efficient as those in the United States, and as a result, liquidity may be reduced and price volatility may be higher in those markets than in more developed markets. The legal and regulatory environment may also be different, particularly with respect to bankruptcy and reorganization, and may afford us less protection as a creditor than we may be entitled to under U.S. law. Financial accounting standards and practices may differ, and there may be less publicly available information in respect of such companies.
Restrictions imposed or actions taken by foreign governments could include exchange controls, seizure or nationalization of foreign deposits and adoption of other governmental restrictions which adversely affect the prices of securities or the ability to repatriate profits. For instance, we process a substantial amount of payments from China. The Chinese government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi the currency of China, into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. The Chinese government may at its discretion further restrict access in the future to foreign currencies for current account transactions, or impose regulatory requirements that may require modifications to our business model for our clients' payors located in China. In addition, income received by us from sources in some countries may be reduced by withholding and other taxes. Any such taxes paid by us will reduce the net income or return from such investments. While we will take these factors into consideration in making investment decisions, including when hedging positions, no assurance can be given that we will be able to fully avoid these risks or generate sufficient risk-adjusted returns.
Violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws, rules and regulations that apply to our cross-border operations may result in fines, criminal actions, or sanctions against us, our officers, or FlyMates; prohibitions on the conduct of our business; and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our FlyMates, contractors, or agents will not violate our policies. These risks are inherent in our cross-border operations and expansion, may increase our costs of doing business internationally, and could harm our business.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 10
Our sales cycles may be long and vary.We devote significant resources to establish relationships with new clients and deepen relationships with existing clients. The sales cycles of our solutions tend to vary depending on the client industry sector which makes forecasting more complex and uncertain.
In addition, sales and sale cycles may be based in part or entirely on factors, or perceived factors, not directly related to the features of our solutions, including, among others, a client or prospective client's projection of business growth, uncertainty about economic conditions (including as a result of heightened inflationary conditions, regulatory concerns, recession concerns, priorities of the U.S. presidential administration and related changes in laws, regulations or policies, and the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, or the ongoing conflict between the U.S., Iran and
Israel in the Middle East or the failure of an agreed-upon peace in the conflict between Israel and Hamas to become permanent), capital budgets, anticipated cost savings from the implementation of our solution, potential preference for internally-developed software solutions, perceptions about our business and solutions, more favorable terms offered by potential competitors, and previous technology investments. Mid-market and large enterprises tend to have more complex operating environments than smaller businesses, making it often more difficult and time-consuming for us to demonstrate the value of our solutions to prospective clients. The decision to use our solutions may also be an enterprise-wide decision, and require us to provide greater levels of education regarding the use and benefits of our solutions, which may result in additional time, effort, and money spent on our sales cycle without any assurance that our efforts will be successful in generating any sales. Often, major hospital systems and national or state higher education systems will solicit service offers by issuing RFPs, which are generally a time- and resource-intensive process, with no assurances of being selected as a vendor after the RFP process is completed. Additionally, large enterprises typically have longer implementation cycles, especially hospital and education systems, require greater product functionality and scalability and a broader range of services, demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks, sometimes require longer testing periods that delay general availability of our solutions, and expect greater payment flexibility from vendors. All of these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these clients. If we fail to realize an expected sale from a large end-client in a particular quarter or at all, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
In addition, we may face unexpected deployment challenges with enterprise clients. It may be difficult to deploy our software solutions if a client has unexpected database, hardware or software technology issues, or if a client insists on a more customized or unique solution that is time intensive or that we have little prior experience in delivering. Decisions on timing of deployments may also be impacted by cost and availability of personnel. Any difficulties or delays in the initial implementation could cause clients to reject our solutions or lead to the delay or non-receipt of future orders, in which case our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 11
We typically incur significant upfront costs in our client relationships, and if we are unable to develop or grow these relationships over time, we are unlikely to recover these costs and our operating results may suffer.We devote significant resources to establish relationships with new clients and deepen relationships with existing clients. Our sales cycle for our solutions can be variable, typically ranging from three to nine months from initial contact to contract execution. However, there is potential for our sales cycle to extend beyond three to nine months. During the period of our sales cycle, our efforts involve educating our clients about the use, technical capabilities and benefits of our solutions. Our operating results depend in substantial part on our ability to deliver a successful client experience and persuade our clients to grow their relationship with us over time. As we expect to grow rapidly, our client acquisition costs could outpace our build-up of recurring revenue, and we may be unable to reduce our total operating costs through economies of scale such that we are unable to achieve or maintain profitability. Any increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays, including delays caused by factors outside of our control, could cause our operating results to suffer.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 12
If we fail to offer high-quality client support, or if our support is more expensive than anticipated, our business and reputation could suffer.Our clients and their customers rely on our support services to resolve issues and realize the full benefits provided by our solutions. High-quality support is also important for the expansion of the use of our solutions with existing clients and their customers. We provide multilingual support over chat, email or via telephone. The number of our clients, and the number of their customers utilizing our solutions, has grown significantly and such growth, as well as any future growth, will put additional pressure on our client service organization. If we do not help our clients and their customers quickly resolve issues and provide effective ongoing support, or if our support personnel or methods of providing support are insufficient to meet the needs of our clients and their customers, our ability to retain clients and their customers and acquire new clients and customers could suffer, and our reputation with existing or potential clients could be harmed. Providing an exceptional client experience requires significant time and resources from our client service team. Therefore, failure to scale our client service organization adequately may adversely impact our business results and financial condition.
In addition, as we continue to operate and grow our operations and continue to expand to new jurisdictions, we need to be able to provide efficient client service that meets our clients' needs globally at scale. In geographies where we sell through our channel partners, if we are unable to provide a high quality client experience tailored to the language and culture of the applicable jurisdiction, our business operations and reputation may suffer.
Brand / Reputation1 | 1.4%
Brand / Reputation - Risk 1
If we fail to maintain, protect and enhance our brand, our ability to expand our client base will be impaired and our business, operating results, and financial condition may suffer.Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 11/74 (15%)Below Sector Average
Innovation / R&D1 | 1.4%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly and significantly changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, and changing business needs, requirements, or preferences, or if we fail to continue to grow and develop our payments solutions, our business may be materially and adversely affected.Trade Secrets3 | 4.1%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
Indemnity and liability provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement, data protection, and other losses.Trade Secrets - Risk 2
If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary rights, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, generate less revenue and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secret laws, the domain name dispute resolution mechanism, confidentiality procedures, and contractual provisions to establish and protect our proprietary rights. However, effective protection of intellectual property rights is expensive, both in terms of application and maintenance costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights, and the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. We do not have patents covering any of our technology and do not actively pursue patents. Any of our trademarks, or other intellectual property rights may be challenged or circumvented by others, or narrowed or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. There can be no guarantee that others will not independently develop similar solutions or duplicate any of our solutions. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability, and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our solutions and use information that we regard as proprietary to create solutions that compete with ours.
We pursue registration of copyrights, trademarks, and domain names in the United States and in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, but doing so may not always be successful or cost-effective. We may be unable or, in some instances, choose not to obtain legal protection for our intellectual property, and our existing and future intellectual property rights may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our solutions from those of our competitors. The laws of some foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and effective intellectual property protection and mechanisms may be uncertain or unavailable in those jurisdictions. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property in such countries, and the inability to do so could impair our business or adversely affect our international expansion. Particularly given the international nature of the Internet, the rate of growth of the Internet, and the ease of registering new domain names, we may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property or take prompt enforcement action. Furthermore, the growing use of generative artificial intelligence presents an increased risk of unintentional and/or unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property rights.
We endeavor to enter into agreements with our FlyMates, consultants and contractors and with parties with whom we do business in order to acquire intellectual property rights developed as a result of service to us, as well as to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information. No assurance can be given that our intellectual property related agreements with our FlyMates, consultants, contractors clients, their customers, or strategic partners and others will be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our solutions and proprietary information, potentially resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and other intellectual property, including to our competitors, which could cause us to lose any competitive advantage resulting from this intellectual property. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors or partners from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our solutions. In addition, individuals not subject to invention assignment agreements may make adverse ownership claims to our current and future intellectual property.
To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor, protect and defend these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming, and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management's attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our solutions, impair the functionality of our solutions, delay introductions of new features, integrations, and capabilities, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our solutions, or injure our reputation. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new features, integrations, and capabilities, and we cannot be certain that we could license that technology on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and our inability to license this technology could harm our ability to compete.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
We may in the future be subject to intellectual property disputes, which are costly and may subject us to significant liability and increased costs of doing business.We may in the future become subject to intellectual property disputes. Lawsuits are time-consuming and expensive to resolve and they divert management's time and attention. We cannot predict the outcome of lawsuits and cannot assure you that the results of any such actions will not have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, or financial condition. During litigation, we may become subject to provisional rulings, including preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle legal disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Furthermore, such disputes, even those without merit, may subject us to an unfavorable judgment that we may not choose to appeal or that may not be reversed upon appeal. In such a situation, we could be required to pay substantial damages or license fees to third party patent owners. In addition, we may also be required to modify, redesign, reengineer, or rebrand our solutions, or stop making, licensing, or providing solutions that incorporate the asserted intellectual property. Alternatively, we may enter into a license agreement to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party's rights. If we are required, or choose to enter into, royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may also be contractually obligated to indemnify our clients in the event of infringement of a third party's intellectual property rights.
Cyber Security1 | 1.4%
Cyber Security - Risk 1
Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities can disrupt our business and harm our competitive position.Technology6 | 8.1%
Technology - Risk 1
We use artificial intelligence (AI) in our solutions and services which may result in operational challenges, legal liability, reputational harm, competitive risks and regulatory and enhanced fraud concerns that could adversely affect our business and results of operations.Technology - Risk 2
If we do not or cannot maintain the compatibility of our solution with evolving software solutions used by our clients, or the interoperability of our solutions with those of our third-party payment providers, payment networks and key software vendors, our business may be materially and adversely affected.Flywire's platform is designed to integrate with a broad ecosystem of ERP and financial management systems, such as Workday and Oracle for B2B payments, Oracle, Workday and Ellucian for education, Epic Systems for healthcare, and Rezdy for travel. These integrations enhance our ability to streamline complex flows, improve operational efficiency, and deepen our value proposition across vertical markets. We automatically synchronize suppliers, clients, client customers, invoices, and payment transactions between our solutions and these systems. This two-way sync eliminates duplicate data entry and provides the basis for managing cash-flow through an integrated solution for accounts receivable, and payments.
In addition, we are subject to certain standard terms and conditions with these partners. These partners have broad discretion to change their terms of service and other policies, and those changes may be unfavorable to us. Therefore, we believe that maintaining successful partnerships with these providers is critical to our future success.
We also rely on our proprietary global payment network comprised of leading global, regional and local banks and technology and payment partners. If we do not or cannot maintain the interoperability of their products or services or the products or our key software vendors that are integral to our solutions, our business may be materially and adversely affected. These third parties periodically update and change their systems, and although we have been able to adapt our solutions to their evolving needs in the past, there can be no guarantee that we will be able to do so in the future. In particular, if we are unable to adapt to such changes, we may not be able to utilize these strategic partners and we may lose access to large numbers of clients as a result.
If any of the third party software providers change the features of their APIs, discontinue their support of such APIs, restrict our access to their APIs, or alter the terms governing their use in a manner that is adverse to our business, we will not be able to provide synchronization capabilities, which could significantly diminish the value of our solutions and harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Technology - Risk 3
Our operational and systems transformation program may not be successful.Added
Our operational and systems transformation initiative involves a multi-year roadmap with accelerated focus and planned "go lives" over its first 18-months aimed at rebuilding our foundational enterprise operating systems, consolidating disparate software applications, establishing a certified data architecture, and deploying enterprise-wide agentic artificial intelligence workflows. Because this initiative involves a highly complex, multi-dimensional modification of our people, processes, governance, and technology, it is subject to substantial execution risks. Inadequate or defective implementation of core enterprise software platforms, and shortcomings in the consolidation and/or integration of disparate software applications (and in certain instances replacing legacy applications with new ones) could result in significant project delays, systemic operational disruptions, or total project failure. In addition, we may have challenges implementing these replacement systems and driving efficient and effective adoption and use within our employee base, which can create lapses in productivity and magnify the potential for human error. Furthermore, if our data architecture fails to enforce proper data governance and data contracts, or if there are material errors or discrepancies in data conversion and migration cycles, our upstream business metrics will be compromised. This could lead to a systemic failure to achieve our target "Single Source of Truth," which would severely undermine the performance, reliability, and security of our downstream models and automated forecasting tools.
The vast operational scope of the transformation program demands a significant commitment of internal subject matter experts and has resulted in a substantial focus of management and engineering resources away from day-to-day operations and business-as-usual strategic goals. By aligning our core innovation strategies so heavily with specific strategic partners, and centering our digital infrastructure around select technical ecosystems, we face considerable opportunity costs and reliance on third-party vendors to deliver timely on architected solutions. These dependencies could cause us to lose valuable opportunities to spend capital on, or develop, alternative or superior technologies that may emerge in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence and data management markets. If our management team is unable to successfully balance these competing operational demands, our core product timelines, client relationship management activities, and global payment network support capabilities may suffer, which could materially and adversely affect our competitive positioning, financial health, and overall growth trajectory.
Financially, the transformation program requires a substantial financial commitment, including initial capital expenditure alongside millions of dollars in incremental recurring software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing fees and ongoing platform investments. Despite our efforts to maintain rigid budget discipline, we face the distinct possibility of significant cost overruns due to unforeseen engineering complexities, integration bottlenecks across disparate third-party systems, regional talent constraints, evolving global regulatory standards, or extended vendor deployment timelines. The ultimate commercial success and return on investment of the transformation program are deeply contingent upon our ability to capture significant long-term operational savings and drive aggressive structural productivity gains. If we experience implementation delays, high personnel attrition within our newly reorganized data and systems squads, or an inability to successfully transition historical manual and spreadsheet-based workflows into automated processes, our anticipated cost structure improvements will fail to materialize. Under such circumstances, we may never achieve our projected break-even targets, which would result in material asset impairments and severely harm our operating margins and net income.
Technology - Risk 4
Certain of our key performance indicators are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.We track certain key performance indicators, including metrics such as total payment volume, revenue less ancillary services, FX Neutral Revenue Less Ancillary Services, adjusted gross profit, adjusted gross margin, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margin, with internal systems and tools and which may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties due to differences in sources, methodologies, or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our key performance indicators, including the metrics we publicly disclose, or our estimates. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring these metrics across our growing client base. If our key performance indicators are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors, clients or other stakeholders do not perceive our operating metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly harmed, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 5
Our use of "open source" software could negatively affect our ability to offer and sell access to our solutions and subject us to possible litigation.We use open source software in our solutions and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. There are uncertainties regarding the proper interpretation of and compliance with open source licenses, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to use such open source software, and consequently to provide or distribute our solutions. Although use of open source software has historically been free, several open source providers have begun to charge license fees for use of their software. If our current open source providers were to begin to charge for these licenses or increase their license fees significantly, this would increase our research and development costs and have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we may from time to time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or seeking to enforce the terms of, an open source license, including by demanding release of source code for the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using, or that is distributed with, such open source software. These claims could also result in litigation and could require us to make our proprietary software source code freely available, require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions or incur additional costs and expenses, any of which could result in reputational harm and would have a negative effect on our business and operating results. In addition, if the license terms for the open source software we utilize change, we may be forced to reengineer our solutions or incur additional costs to comply with the changed license terms or to replace the affected open source software. Further, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software or indemnification for third party infringement claims. Although we have implemented policies to regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our solutions, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our solutions in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies.
Technology - Risk 6
Systems failures and resulting interruptions in the availability of our solutions and core payment platform could harm our business.Our systems and payment platform and those of our service providers and partners have experienced from time to time, and may experience in the future, service interruptions or degradation because of hardware and software defects or malfunctions, distributed denial-of-service and other cyberattacks, insider threats, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and other natural disasters, including events resulting from climate change, war or other military conflict, including the continuation or escalation of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and the ongoing conflict between the U.S., Iran and Israel, respectively, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, computer viruses or other malware, or other events. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all possible outcomes or events. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions targeted to highly regulated clients in industries such as education and healthcare, we are subject to heightened scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity, resiliency and disaster recovery plans, and more rigorous testing of such plans, which are costly and time-consuming to implement, and may divert our resources from other business priorities.
A prolonged interruption in the availability, speed, or functionality of our solutions, payment platform or payment methods could materially harm our business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our solutions could cause current or potential clients and their customers to believe that our systems are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid or reduce the use of our solutions, and could permanently harm our reputation and brand. Moreover, if any system or platform failure or similar event results in damages to our clients or their customers and business partners, these clients, customers or partners could seek significant compensation or contractual penalties from us for their losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
We have undertaken and continue to make certain technology and network upgrades and redundancies which are designed to improve the reliability of our solutions and payment platform. These efforts are costly and time-consuming, involve significant technical risk and may divert our resources from new features and solutions, and there can be no guarantee that these efforts will succeed. Because we are a regulated payments institution in certain jurisdictions, frequent or persistent interruptions could lead to regulatory scrutiny, significant fines and penalties, and mandatory and costly changes to our business practices, and ultimately could cause us to lose existing licenses that we need to operate or prevent or delay us from obtaining additional licenses that may be required for our business.
We use public cloud hosting with AWS and depend on AWS' ability to protect their data centers against damage or interruption from natural disasters, power or telecommunications failures, criminal acts, and similar events. Our operations depend on protecting the cloud infrastructure hosted by AWS by maintaining the configuration, architecture, and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers and transmitted by third-party internet service providers. In limited occasions, we have experienced service disruptions in the past, and may experience interruptions or delays in our solutions in the future. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the data storage services we use. Although we have disaster recovery plans that utilize various data storage locations, any incident affecting our data storage or internet service providers' infrastructure that may be caused by fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake, power loss, telecommunications failures, unauthorized intrusion, computer viruses and disabling devices, natural disasters, war or other military conflict, including an escalation of the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, or in the Middle East involving the U.S., Israel, Hamas and Iran, terrorist attacks, negligence, and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect our solutions. Any prolonged service disruption affecting our solutions could damage our reputation with current and potential clients, expose us to liability, cause us to lose clients, or otherwise harm our business. In the event of damage or interruption to our solutions, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur.
In addition, we may experience financial losses due to a number of factors, including:
- third party disruptions, including potential outages at network providers and other suppliers;- supply chain impacts, including shortages of goods, raw materials, increased prices or delays in shipment;- challenges to the availability and reliability of our network due to changes to normal operations;- increased cyber and payment fraud risk, as cybercriminals attempt DDoS related attacks, phishing scams and other disruptive actions, given the shift to online banking, e-commerce and other online activity, as well as more FlyMates working remotely; and - system failures or outages, including any potential disruptions due to significantly increased global demand on certain cloud-based systems, could compromise our ability to provide our solutions in a timely manner, which could harm our ability to conduct business or delay our financial reporting. Such failures could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Our solutions and payment platform are accessed by many of our clients and their customers, often at the same time. As we continue to expand the number of clients that we serve and solutions that we are able to offer to our clients and their customers, we may not be able to scale our technology to accommodate the increased capacity requirements, which may result in interruptions or delays in service. In addition, the failure of data centers, internet service providers, or other third-party service providers to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruptions or delays in access to our solutions or platform or impede our ability to grow our business and scale our operations. If our third-party infrastructure service agreements are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, interruption of internet service provider connectivity, or damage to data centers, we could experience interruptions in access to our solutions as well as delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities and services.
We also rely on components, applications, and services supplied by third parties, including payment service providers and merchant acquirer partners which subjects us to risks. If these third parties experience operational interference or disruptions, breach their agreements with us, fail to perform their obligations and meet our expectations, or experience a cybersecurity incident, our operations could be disrupted or otherwise negatively affected, which could result in client dissatisfaction, regulatory scrutiny, and damage to our reputation and brand, and materially and adversely affect our business.
In addition, we are continually improving and upgrading our systems and technologies. Implementation of new systems and technologies is complex, expensive, and time-consuming. If we fail to timely and successfully implement new systems and technologies, or improvements or upgrades to existing information systems and technologies, or if such systems and technologies do not operate as intended, this could have an adverse impact on our business, internal controls (including internal controls over financial reporting), results of operations, and financial condition.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 7/74 (9%)Below Sector Average
Regulation5 | 6.8%
Regulation - Risk 1
Payments and other financial services-related regulations and oversight are material to our business. Our failure to comply could materially harm our business.Regulation - Risk 2
The regulatory environment in which we operate is subject to constant change, and new regulations could make aspects of our business as currently conducted no longer possible.As a result of the regulations applicable to our business, we could be subject to investigations and resulting liability, including governmental fines, restrictions on our business, or other sanctions, and we could be forced to cease conducting certain aspects of our business with residents of certain jurisdictions, be forced to change our business practices in certain jurisdictions, or be required to obtain additional licenses or regulatory approvals. For example, because a majority of voters in the U.K. approved an exit from the E.U. (commonly referred to as Brexit), we were required to obtain a license from a member state of the EEA which would allow us to continue to provide our solutions to clients located in the EEA under a principle known as "passporting". We were able to obtain a license as an authorized payment institution from the Bank of Lithuania in September 2019 and subsequently obtained the right to passport our solutions to other EEA member states.
Government agencies may impose new or additional rules on money transmission, which may increase our costs of doing business, including, but not limited to regulations that:
- prohibit, restrict, and/or impose taxes or fees on money transmission transactions in, to or from certain countries or with certain governments, individuals, and entities;- impose additional client identification and client due diligence requirements;- impose additional reporting or recordkeeping requirements, or require enhanced transaction monitoring;- limit the types of entities capable of providing money transmission services, or impose additional licensing or registration requirements;- impose minimum capital or other financial requirements;- limit or restrict the revenue that may be generated from money transmission, including revenue from the transaction value associated with the payment method used by our clients' customers and platform-related fees for access to our solutions and invoice and payment plan fees;- require enhanced disclosures to our money transmission clients or their customers;- require the principal amount of money transmission transactions originated in a country to be invested in that country or held in trust until paid;- limit the number or principal amount of money transmission transactions that may be sent to or from a jurisdiction, whether by an individual or in the aggregate; and - restrict or limit our ability to process transactions using centralized databases, for example, by requiring that transactions be processed using a database maintained in a particular country or region.
Regulation - Risk 3
We are subject to governmental laws and requirements regarding economic and trade sanctions, AML and CFT that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to criminal or civil liability if we violate them.We are currently required to comply with U.S. economic and trade sanctions administered by OFAC and we have processes in place designed to comply with the OFAC regulations as well as similar requirements in the foreign jurisdictions in which we already operate. As part of our compliance efforts, we scan our clients and their customers against watch lists promulgated by OFAC and certain other international agencies. Our application can be accessed from nearly anywhere in the world, and if our service is accessed from a sanctioned country or otherwise accessed or used in violation of applicable trade and economic sanctions, we could be subject to fines or other enforcement actions. In the course of enhancing our sanctions compliance function, we initiated an internal review that identified issues related to our compliance with sanctions, including payments that may have originated from sanctioned jurisdictions or sanctioned persons. We have made voluntary submissions to OFAC to report the apparent violations and to provide supplemental information. Flywire is currently engaging with OFAC to resolve these matters. Although the internal investigation completed to date suggests that any loss incurred as a result of this matter would not be material to our business, if OFAC ultimately concludes any violation has occurred in connection with these or other transactions, it could result in penalties, fines, costs, and restrictions on our ability to do business, which could also harm our operating results.
We are also subject to various AML and CFT laws and regulations around the world that prohibit, among other things, our involvement in transferring the proceeds of criminal or terrorist activities. In the United States, most of our solutions are subject to AML laws and regulations, including the BSA, and similar laws and regulations. The BSA, among other things, requires MSBs to develop and implement risk-based AML programs, to report large cash transactions and suspicious activity, and in some cases, to collect and maintain information about clients who use their services and maintain other transaction records. Regulators and third-party auditors have identified gaps in how similar businesses have implemented AML programs, and we could likewise be subject to significant fines, penalties, inquiries, audits, investigations, enforcement actions, and criminal and civil liability if our AML program is found to be insufficient by a regulator.
Our business operations in other parts of the world such as the U.K., Lithuania, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore are subject to similar laws and requirements. Regulators in the United States and globally continue to increase their scrutiny of compliance with these obligations, which may require us to further revise or expand our compliance program, including the procedures we use to verify the identity of our clients and to monitor transactions on our system, including payments to persons outside of the United States. Regulators regularly re-examine the transaction volume thresholds at which we must obtain and keep applicable records or verify identities of clients, and any change in such thresholds could result in greater costs for compliance. Similarly, as a condition to doing business with us, our banking and other strategic partners also impose ongoing obligations on us related to AML and CFT and sanctions screening. Any failure on our part to maintain the necessary processes and policies to comply with these regulations and requirements, or to adapt our processes and policies to changes in laws, would subject us to penalties, fines, or loss of key relationships which would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Furthermore, government sanctions imposed with respect to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 are impacting our ability to offer our services in the region, and additional sanctions could be imposed in the future. Further instability or tension in Russia, Ukraine, and the surrounding region could also cause us to adjust our operating model, which would increase our costs of operations.
Regulation - Risk 4
Any actual or perceived failure to comply with governmental regulation and other legal obligations, particularly those related to privacy, data protection, and information security, could harm our business. Compliance with such laws could also result in additional costs and liabilities to us or inhibit sales of our solutions.Our clients and their customers store personal and business information, financial information and other sensitive information through our solutions. In addition, we collect, store, and process personal and business information and other data from and about actual and prospective clients, their customers, our FlyMates and our service providers and other business partners, as well as their personnel. Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and various state, local, and foreign agencies. Our data handling is also subject to contractual obligations and industry standards.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use, and storage of data relating to individuals and businesses, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising, and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the United States, various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure, and security of certain types of data, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, FERPA, HIPAA, and the now in question E.U.-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield protections, as well as state laws relating to privacy and data security. Additionally, the FTC and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use, dissemination, and security of data. For example, California enacted the CCPA, which took effect on January 1, 2020 and became enforceable by the California Attorney General on July 1, 2020, and broadly defines personal information. The CCPA creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that term is broadly defined) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA requires covered companies to provide certain disclosures to California consumers about its data collection, use and sharing practices, provide such consumers with ways to opt-out of certain sales or transfers of personal information, provides for civil penalties for violations, and allows for a new private right of action for data breaches that has resulted in an increase in data breach litigation. It remains unclear, however, how the CCPA will be interpreted. As currently written, it will likely impact our business activities and exemplifies the vulnerability of our business to not only cyber threats but also the evolving regulatory environment related to personal data and protected health information. CCPA and CPRA enforcement actions have resulted in significant penalties, and the California Privacy Protection Agency has continued to expand its enforcement activities.
Additionally, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which was passed in November 2020 and became effective on January 1, 2023, imposed additional obligations on companies covered by the legislation and significantly modified the CCPA, including by expanding consumers' rights with respect to certain sensitive personal information. The CPRA also created a new state agency that will be vested with authority to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. The effects of the CCPA and the CPRA are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data collection or processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply and increase our potential exposure to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation.
The laws and regulations relating to privacy and data security are evolving, can be subject to significant change, and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions. The CCPA, in particular, has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state-level privacy legislation, which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business. Several states in the U.S. have proposed or enacted laws that contain obligations similar to the CCPA and CPRA that have taken effect or will take effect in coming years. The U.S. federal government also is contemplating federal privacy legislation. The effects of recently proposed or enacted legislation potentially are far-reaching. Such legislation may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, require additional investment of resources in compliance programs, impact strategies and the availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies.
Many of the foreign jurisdictions where we or our clients operate or conduct business, including the E.U., have laws and regulations dealing with the collection, use, storage, and disclosure and other handling (collectively, processing) of personal information, which in some cases are more restrictive than those in the U.S. In addition to regulating the processing of personal information within the relevant jurisdictions, these legal requirements often also apply to the processing of personal information outside these jurisdictions, where there is some specified link to the relevant jurisdiction. For example, we have multiple offices in Europe and serves clients and their customers throughout the E.U., where the GDPR went into effect in 2018. The GDPR, which is also the law in Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and-to a large degree-the U.K., has an extensive global reach and imposes robust obligations relating to the processing of personal information, including documentation requirements, greater control for data subjects (e.g., the "right to be forgotten" and data portability), security requirements, notice requirements, restrictions on sharing personal information,data governance obligations, data breach notification requirements, and restrictions on the export of personal information to most other countries. The solutions that we currently offer subject us to many of these laws and regulations in many of the foreign jurisdictions where we operate or conduct business, and these laws and regulations may be modified or subject to new or different interpretations, and new laws and regulations may be enacted in the future.
Legal developments have created compliance uncertainty regarding some transfers of personal information from the U.K. and EEA to locations where we or our clients operate or conduct business, including the United States and potentially Singapore, particularly with respect to cross-border transfers. Under the GDPR, such transfers can take place only if certain conditions apply or if certain data transfer mechanisms are in place. In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the E.U. ruled in its "Schrems II" decision (C-311/18), that the Privacy Shield, a transfer mechanism used by thousands of companies to transfer data between those jurisdictions and United States (and also used by us), was invalid and could no longer be used due to the strength of United States surveillance laws. In September 2020, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner of Switzerland (where the law has a similar restriction on the export of personal information) issued an opinion concluding that the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework does not provide an adequate level of protection for data transfers from Switzerland to the United States pursuant to Switzerland's Federal Act on Data Protection. We and our clients continue to use alternative transfer strategies, including SCCs, while the authorities interpret the Schrems II decision and the validity of alternative data transfer mechanisms. The SCCs, though previously approved by the European Commission, have faced challenges in European courts (including being called into question in the Schrems II decision), and may be further challenged, suspended or invalidated for transfers to some or all countries. For example, guidance regarding Schrems II issued by the European Data Protection Board (which is comprised of representatives from every E.U. member state's top data protection authority) have cast serious doubt on the validity of SCCs for most transfers of personal information to the United States. At present, there are few if any viable alternatives to the Privacy Shield and the SCCs, so such developments may necessitate further expenditures on local infrastructure, changes to internal business processes, changes to clients and clients' customer facing solutions, or may otherwise affect or restrict our sales and operations.
On June 4, 2021, the European Commission released the final Implementing Decision on SCCs (New SCCs) for the transfer of personal data from the E.U. to "third countries" such as the US. The New SCCs will repeal and replace the existing SCCs (dating from 2001, 2004 and 2010) and address the entry into force of the GDPR) and the July 2020 decision of the CJEU in Schrems II, which invalidated the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield. The New SCCs broadly follow the draft implementing decision on standard contractual clauses (Draft SCCs) issued by the European Commission on November 12, 2020, but there are some material differences. The Draft SCCs' significant and extensive new requirements for data importers that act as controllers (for example, obligations to give notice to data subjects and to notify personal data breaches to EU authorities) remain, but have been aligned more closely with the GDPR requirements. While the New SCCs are not immediately in force, compliance with them will be required for new transfer agreements entered into from late September 2021. SCCs then in effect were required to be replaced with the New SCCs by December 27, 2022.
On July 10, 2023, the European Commission formally approved the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (the "Framework"), under which European entities will now be able to transfer personal data to Framework participants in the U.S. without having to put in place additional data protection safeguards or use the Standard Contractual Clauses for data transfers. We are in the process of evaluating how we may self-certify as a participating organization with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
E.U. data protection authorities have the power to impose administrative fines for violations of the GDPR of up to a maximum of €20 million or 4% of a corporate family's total worldwide global turnover for the preceding fiscal year, whichever is higher. Such penalties are in addition to any civil litigation claims by clients, data subjects or other third parties. We believe that the solutions that we currently offer subject us to the GDPR and other laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security, and these may be modified or subject to new or different interpretations in the future. We will need to take steps to address compliance obligations in this rapidly evolving legal environment, but we cannot assure you that we will be able to implement changes in a timely manner or without significant disruption to our business, or that such steps will be effective, and we may face the risk of liability and loss of business.
In addition, further to the U.K. exit from the E.U. on January 31, 2020, the GDPR ceased to apply in the U.K. at the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. However, as of January 1, 2021, the U.K.'s European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 incorporated the GDPR (as it existed on December 31, 2020 but subject to certain U.K. specific amendments) into U.K. law (referred to as the U.K. GDPR). The U.K. GDPR and the U.K. Data Protection Act 2018 set out the U.K.'s data protection regime, which is independent from but aligned to the E.U.'s data protection regime. Non-compliance with the U.K. GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. Like the GDPR, the U.K. GDPR restricts personal data transfers outside the U.K. to countries not regarded by the U.K. as providing adequate protection (this means that personal data transfers from the U.K. to the EEA remain free flowing).
On June 28, 2021, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision under the GDPR, thereby recognizing that the U.K.'s data protection system continues to provide the same protections with respect to personal data as when it was an EU member state, and enabling the continued exchange of personal data between the E.U. and the U.K. The adequacy decision facilitates the implementation of the E.U.-U.K. Trade Cooperation Agreement, which foresaw the need for bilateral data flow and continued cooperation. The adequacy decision included a ‘sunset clause', limiting its duration to four years. On December 19, 2025, the European Commission formally renewed its data adequacy decisions for the U.K., reaffirming that the U.K. maintains an equivalent level of personal data protection under its post-Brexit framework, including updates made by the U.K.'s Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Following a technical six-month extension granted in June 2025 to review the new legislation, this decision allows personal data to continue flowing freely between the European Economic Area (EEA) and the U.K. without requiring additional transfer safeguards through December 27, 2031.
The U.K.'s Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 overhauled the U.K. data governance framework by establishing Digital Verification Services standards, creating "Smart Data" sharing schemes, and updating U.K. GDPR rules to streamline automated decision-making and subject access requests. In certain respects, these regulatory changes ease administrative data burdens and facilitate digitized identity verification across our U.K. education and healthcare client networks, while requiring updates to customer complaint handling timelines and data privacy compliance workflows.
This lack of clarity on future U.K. laws and regulations and their interaction with E.U. laws and regulations could add legal risk, uncertainty, complexity and cost to our handling of E.U. personal information and our privacy and data security compliance programs. It is possible that over time the U.K. Data Protection Act 2018 could become less aligned with the GDPR, which could require us to implement different compliance measures for the U.K. and the E.U. and result in potentially enhanced compliance obligations for E.U. personal data.
In Asia, there has been an increase in both regulation and enforcement of privacy laws. The Act on Protection of Personal Information originally enacted in June 2020 by the Japanese government, was amended and came into effect on April 1, 2022 (Amended APPI). Since the passage of the Amended APPI, a number of implementing regulations and supporting documents have been released, addressing the requirements for transferring personal data outside Japan, notifying security breaches and creating pseudonymous information exempt from certain obligations under the Amended APPI. On April 7, 2026, the Japanese Cabinet approved and submitted to the Diet a bill to amend the APPI, which includes both deregulatory measures and strengthened regulatory provisions. Key highlights among other matters include: a new consent exemption for statistical processing (e.g., AI development); broader relaxation of consent requirements; specific protections for children's personal data; new rules on biometric data; and regulatory relief for entrusted data processors. Assuming the bill passes the Diet in 2026, the new rules are expected to take full effect by 2028 at the latest. We have taken steps to address compliance obligations that apply to us under the Amended APPI, but cannot assure you that such steps will be effective, and we may face the risk of increased costs, liability and loss of business.
China (home to the most online users in the world) passed its DSL and its PIPL in 2021. The DSL applies to a wide range of data processing activities including, but not limited to, processing personal information. With extraterritorial scope and severe fines and penalties, these laws are set to impose an increasingly complex and comprehensive legal framework for processing personal information when doing business in China. The PIPL is enforced and administered by the Cyberspace Administration of China and relevant state and local government departments. The law draws from the GDPR, with heavy penalties up to the greater of 5% of the previous year's revenue (possibly global) or $7.7 million. Chinese authorities have demonstrated a willingness to impose significant fines for violations of PIPL and other privacy laws, as evidenced by enforcement actions against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Didi Global Inc. in 2022.
As a reaction to data security concerns, in 2022, the Australian parliament approved a bill to amend the country's privacy legislation, significantly increasing the maximum penalties for companies and data controllers who suffer large-scale data breaches to the greater of: (i) AU$50 million, (ii) three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, and (iii) 30% of a company's adjusted turnover in the relevant period. Previously, the penalty for severe data exposures was AU$2.22 million, considered by the current parliament to be wholly inadequate to incentivize companies to improve their data security mechanisms. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has new regulatory tools and flexibility that should, together with an ongoing focus on funding enforcement, see a more proactive regulator with capacity and capability to investigate and litigate more privacy incidents in Australia.
We have taken steps to address compliance obligations that apply to us under the Amended APPI, the DSL, the PIPL and applicable Australian regulations, but cannot assure you that such steps will be effective, and we may face the risk of increased costs, liability and loss of business.
In addition to government regulation, privacy advocates and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that, if adopted, may apply to us, or which clients or clients' customers may require us to adopt. Because the interpretation and application of privacy and data protection laws, regulations, rules, and other standards are still uncertain, it is possible that these laws, rules, regulations, and other actual or alleged legal obligations, such as contractual or self-regulatory obligations, may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the functionality of our solutions. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits and other claims, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our software, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with laws, regulations, policies, legal, or contractual obligations, industry standards, or regulatory guidance relating to privacy or data security, may result in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties, or adverse publicity, and could cause our clients and partners to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations, and industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, consumer communications, and information security, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, regulations, and standards may have on our business. Future laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations or any changed interpretation of existing laws or regulations could impair our ability to develop and market new functionality and maintain and grow our client base and increase revenue. Future restrictions on the collection, use, sharing, or disclosure of data, or additional requirements for express or implied consent of our clients, partners, or end users for the use and disclosure of such information could require us to incur additional costs or modify our solutions, possibly in a material manner, and could limit our ability to develop new functionality.
If we are not able to comply with these laws or regulations, or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, we could be directly harmed, and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability. This may require us to expend substantial resources or to discontinue certain solutions, which would negatively affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. In addition, the increased attention focused upon liability issues as a result of lawsuits and legislative proposals could harm our reputation or otherwise adversely affect the growth of our business. Furthermore, any costs incurred as a result of this potential liability could harm our operating results.
Regulation - Risk 5
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal or civil liability and harm our business.We are subject to the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act, U.S. domestic bribery laws, and other anti-corruption laws. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies, their employees, and their third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public sector. These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. We maintain operations and serve clients around the world. Although we do not target government entities as clients, some of our clients may receive funding or other support from local, state, provincial or national governments. As we maintain and seek to increase our international cross-border business and expand operations abroad, we may engage with business partners and third-party intermediaries to market our solutions and to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals. In addition, we or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our FlyMates, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities.
While we maintain policies and training programs for our FlyMates related to anti-corruption, anti-bribery and gift giving, and include representations regarding legal compliance in our contracts with vendors and strategic partners, there can be no assurances that these policies, training programs or contractual provisions will be observed or enforceable. We cannot assure you that all of our FlyMates and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible. As we increase our international business, our risks under these laws may increase.
Detecting, investigating, and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption laws can require a significant diversion of time, resources, and attention from senior management. In addition, noncompliance with anti-corruption or anti-bribery laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, enforcement actions, fines, damages, other civil or criminal penalties, injunctions, suspension or debarment from contracting with certain persons, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas are received or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal proceeding, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management's attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.
In February 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other countries announced sanctions against Russia. The sanctions by the United States and other countries against Russia to date include restrictions on selling or importing goods, services or technology in or from affected regions, travel bans and asset freezes impacting connected individuals and political, military, business and financial organizations in Russia, severing Russia's largest bank from the U.S. financial system, barring some Russian enterprises from raising money in the U.S. market and blocking the access of Russian banks to financial markets. The United States and other countries could impose wider sanctions and take other actions should the conflict further escalate. While it is difficult to anticipate the impact the sanctions announced to date may have on us, any further sanctions imposed or actions taken by the United States or other countries, and any retaliatory measures by Russia in response, could increase our costs, reduce our sales and earnings or otherwise have an adverse effect on our operations.
Taxation & Government Incentives1 | 1.4%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
New or revised tax regulations, unfavorable resolution of tax contingencies or changes to enacted tax rates could adversely affect our tax expense.Environmental / Social1 | 1.4%
Environmental / Social - Risk 1
We, our strategic partners and our clients obtain and process large amounts of personal and sensitive data. Any real or perceived improper or unauthorized use of, disclosure of, or access to such data could harm our reputation as a trusted brand, as well as have a material adverse effect on our business.Production
Total Risks: 5/74 (7%)Below Sector Average
Employment / Personnel2 | 2.7%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
If we lose key members of our management team or are unable to attract and retain executives and employees we need to support our operations and growth, our business may be harmed.Employment / Personnel - Risk 2
The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel could prevent us from executing our business strategy and growth plans.To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for executive officers, software developers, compliance and risk management personnel and other key employees in our industry and locations is intense and increasing, especially in the U.S., where wage inflation has been increasing. We compete with many other companies for software developers with high levels of experience in designing, developing, and managing payment systems, as well as for skilled legal and compliance and risk operations professionals. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do and can frequently offer such personnel substantially greater compensation than we can offer. In addition, immigration policy and regulatory changes may also affect our ability to hire, mobilize, or retain some of our global talent. If we fail to identify, attract, develop and integrate new personnel, or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our growth prospects would be adversely affected.
We rely on highly skilled employees, including software engineers and product specialists, many of whom are foreign nationals working in the United States under H-1B and other temporary work visas. In September 2025, the U.S. government announced its plans to require employers pay a $100,000 filing fee per H-1B visa petition to bring new H-1B workers into the U.S. The new H-1B visa fee would not apply to international students already in the U.S. looking to apply for a status change, but this new requirement would significantly increases the cost of employing new nationals in the U.S and could materially impact our operating expenses and our ability to attract specialized talent. If these visa-related costs remain in effect or increase further, we may be required to reduce our reliance on new H-1B visa holders or absorb materially higher personnel costs, either of which could negatively affect our financial performance. In addition, the number of H-1B visas available each year is limited by quota and lottery, and future changes in immigration laws or enforcement could further restrict our access to qualified foreign workers. Our inability to recruit or retain critical technical and operational talent-whether due to higher visa costs, policy changes, or processing delays-could hinder our ability to innovate, maintain our technology infrastructure, or expand internationally. Currently the status and validity of the $100,000 filing fee is in dispute as the issue is appealed through the U.S. court system.
The new visa fee requirement could also indirectly affect our global operations. Increased hiring costs in the United States may lead us to reallocate engineering or compliance resources abroad, resulting in higher coordination costs, reduced operational efficiency, or delays in product development. If we are unable to effectively manage these transitions or attract equivalent talent in other jurisdictions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Supply Chain3 | 4.1%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We rely on a third-party digital asset partner to process stablecoin transactions and facilitate fiat conversion. Any operational failure, security breach, or regulatory action affecting our third-party digital asset partner could expose us to additional financial, regulatory, operational, and market risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.Supply Chain - Risk 2
Our business depends, in large part, on our proprietary network of global, regional and local banking partners.To grow our business, we will need to maintain and expand our network of global, regional and local banking partners. Our proprietary network of strategic relationships with global, regional and local banking partners is a material asset to our business, which took more than a decade to build. Establishing and maintaining our strategic partner relationships, particularly with our banking partners entails extensive and highly specific efforts, with little predictability and various ancillary requirements. These partners and suppliers have contractual and regulatory requirements and conditions that we must satisfy and continue to comply with in order to continue and grow the relationships. For example, our financial institution partners generally require us to submit to an exhaustive security and anti-financial crime audit including adherence to AML policies and KYC procedures. If we are not able to comply with those obligations or if our agreements with our banking partners or our network partners are terminated for any reason, we could experience service interruptions as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging new services, potentially interfering with our existing client relationships or making us less attractive to potential new clients.
In addition, our existing banking partners may at any time and from time to time cease serving certain categories of payments due to perceived risk or similar reasons as well as payments originating from, or being paid to, certain high-risk jurisdictions. These partners may also impose additional requirements on Flywire, or with respect to their own internal procedures, as a condition of processing such payments in partnership with us. If we cease to be able to process payments from corridors or within certain of our verticals, or we are unable to comply with new requirements or only at considerable expense, our client relationships and ability to grow our revenue could be adversely affected.
Instability and volatility in the banking and financial services sectors, including bank failures, have increased and may in the future increase uncertainty in the global economy and the risk of a global recession. Volatility in the banking and financial services sectors may adversely impact our bank partnerships and could negatively impact our business. We may face difficulty establishing or maintaining banking relationships due to instability in the global banking system and increasing regulatory uncertainty and scrutiny. If these financial institutions are subject to suspension of operations, receivership, closure or similar action, or if our banking relationships become severely limited or unavailable in a certain country, there could be temporary delays in or unavailability of services in such country that are critical to our or our clients' operations. This could potentially lead to reduced use of our platform and lower payment volume which may adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We may not be able to attract new network partners to our existing network of global, regional and local banking partners, which could adversely affect our ability to expand to additional countries and territories and transact in additional currencies. In addition, our potential partners may choose to work with our competitors' or choose to compete with our solutions directly, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial position, and operating results. Further, many of our network partners have greater resources than we do and could choose to develop their own solutions to replace or compete with ours. If we are unsuccessful in establishing, growing, or maintaining our relationships with network partners, our ability to compete or to grow our revenue could be impaired, and our results of operations may suffer.
Supply Chain - Risk 3
Our growth depends in part on the success of our relationships with other (non-banking) third parties.We have established relationships with a number of other companies, including financial institutions, processors, other financial services suppliers, channel sales partners, providers of electronic health records (EHR) services, implementation partners, technology and cloud-based hosting providers, and others. In order to grow our business, we will need to continue to establish and maintain relationships with these types of third parties, and negotiating and documenting relationships with them requires significant time and resources. Our competitors may be more effective in providing incentives to third parties to favor their products or services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third parties, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenues could be impaired and our operating results could suffer. Even if our strategic relationships are successful, we cannot assure you that these relationships will result in increased client usage of our solutions or increased revenues.
Macro & Political
Total Risks: 4/74 (5%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment2 | 2.7%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
We may be adversely affected by global economic and political instability.Economy & Political Environment - Risk 2
A number of recent actual and proposed U.S. policy changes and enforcement practices could reshape the U.S. private secondary and higher education landscape, impacting students, our client educational institutions, and the wider educational framework in the United States.In 2025, there were a number of actions and policies proposed or taken which have unsettled the U.S. private secondary and higher education sector, a historically significant source of clients and revenue for us. Any one or combination of these potential acts and policies coming to fruition or further developing – or even a perception or fear of occurrence – could negatively affect student enrollment at U.S. private boarding schools and colleges and universities, lead to diminishing operating budgets, and adversely affect our business and operating results and financial condition. Among these proposed or actual policies are:
- Restrictions on issuances and revocations of student visas, and deportation of students studying in the U.S. High profile instances of students with traditionally protective immigration status being arrested, deported, or having their student visas revoked have drawn widespread media attention. There have similarly been proposals put forth to expand the scope of bans on visa issuances. Diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and other countries can evoke visa restrictions specifically targeting students which would impact their ability to study in the U.S. Changes in U.S. immigration regulations or other laws, practices and frequency or methods of enforcement which discourage immigration or international study could adversely affect our education vertical or growth rate in the future. Reduced or disrupted international study patterns are likely to reduce the payment volumes we process and harm our operating results.
- Reductions in government funding. There have been a number of instances of actual or threatened withholdings of federal funding to U.S. institutions of higher learning in general as well as to higher-profile U.S. colleges and universities. While some schools have worked out a negotiated arrangement with the U.S. government to allow for funding to continue in whole or in part – subject to specified conditions – others have not, and unreconciled instances continue to create an environment of uncertainty. Changes at the federal level regarding education policy could have a ripple effect on state funding for higher education. This could result in financial uncertainty for public universities that rely on state support, potentially leading to tougher budgetary constraints. Any such reductions could adversely affect the financial health of colleges and universities, leading to diminished operational budgets, fewer student services, and declines in enrollment, which could reduce the demand for our services and negatively impact our operating results.
- Cutbacks to, or elimination of, student loan programs and the U.S. Department of Education. Alterations in student loan regulations or a reduction in U.S. government support for loan programs – particularly for international study – could exacerbate the financial burden on students and their families and make the cost of attending college prohibitively expensive for families. This situation might discourage prospective students from enrolling, thereby affecting overall college attendance rates. We have historically, and expect to continue to, process U.S. student loan payments and a loss of these payment flows or a reduction in the number of students enrolling in higher education institutions that accept U.S. student loan payments could adversely affect our business.
- Public image and perception. The perception of these real or proposed policies – especially with respect to immigration and availability of student visas – and their potential to make it more challenging for international students to study in the United States could result in a significant drop in enrollment numbers. This decline would particularly impact our U.S. client institutions that rely heavily on tuition revenue generated from international students. In addition, other nations may implement more attractive visa policies, which could entice international students to choose educational opportunities outside of the United States. Although we have client institutions in countries around the world where international students may choose to study if they are increasingly uncomfortable studying in the U.S., the cost of attending a school in these jurisdictions may be significantly less than in the U.S., and our payment volumes may suffer as a result.
After a period during which interviews and applications for student visas to study in the U.S. were temporarily suspended, in June 2025 the U.S. Department of State (DOS) resumed scheduling visa interview appointments for international students and exchange visitors while it considered new social media vetting measures. New student and exchange visitor visa policies, including the temporary pause and expanded vetting, could impact the amount of international students successfully enrolling as students in the U.S., which may adversely affect our revenue and results of operations. Some of these expected impacts include:
- Requests for deferred admissions, increased student inquiries/concerns, and delays in expected enrollment;- Visa appointment cancellations, unavailability or delays in scheduling interviews as well as higher visa rejection rates - especially as to potential students from the countries that send the most students to the United States; and - Students pivoting away from study and research in the United States. According to some studies, the top five countries that international students and scholars have indicated they are turning to instead of the United States are: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, and Germany. The European and Asian study destinations that are gaining in market share of student interest often carry lower tuition and related costs of living relative to the United States, which can result in lower volume of payments processed within our education vertical.
The expanded social media screening process applied by the DOS to student visa applicants establishes that, of those students seeking expedited appointments, priority should be given to those attending universities with lower international enrollment (15% or less). This change potentially disadvantages those seeking to study at more internationally diverse institutions and marks a significant departure from previous DOS guidance that prioritized students based on the start of their academic studies. Administrative processing issues, a new requirement that applicants provide DOS access to social media accounts, and the resource-intensive nature of the new screening requirements is expected to create longer wait times and processing delays. All of these factors – and other related uncertainties that will surface as the new standards are implemented – can contribute to a decline in international enrollment in U.S. academic institutions, which could adversely affect our business.
In addition, in the U.S., the "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act (OBBBA) contains a number of provisions with the potential to significantly change the landscape for financing undergraduate and graduate study and which could adversely affect the demand for higher education in the U.S. The OBBBA limits Pell Grant awards (which provide gift aid to low-income students), eliminates the Grad PLUS program, and sets new limits for graduate and professional students for Direct Unsubsidized Loans. The new bill also caps parent loans to finance undergraduate education, and changes student loan repayment options, among other modifications. More specifically, the structural changes to federal higher education financing under the OBBBA include:
- Elimination of Graduate PLUS Loans: The Grad PLUS loan program was eliminated for new borrowers starting July 1, 2026 (with legacy grandfathering options available for up to three academic years for existing borrowers).
Natural and Human Disruptions1 | 1.4%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
Our business serving clients in the travel sector may be sensitive to events affecting the travel industry in general.Capital Markets1 | 1.4%
Capital Markets - Risk 1
We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates that could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.
FAQ
What are “Risk Factors”?
Risk factors are any situations or occurrences that could make investing in a company risky.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that publicly traded companies disclose their most significant risk factors. This is so that potential investors can consider any risks before they make an investment.
They also offer companies protection, as a company can use risk factors as liability protection. This could happen if a company underperforms and investors take legal action as a result.
It is worth noting that smaller companies, that is those with a public float of under $75 million on the last business day, do not have to include risk factors in their 10-K and 10-Q forms, although some may choose to do so.
How do companies disclose their risk factors?
Publicly traded companies initially disclose their risk factors to the SEC through their S-1 filings as part of the IPO process.
Additionally, companies must provide a complete list of risk factors in their Annual Reports (Form 10-K) or (Form 20-F) for “foreign private issuers”.
Quarterly Reports also include a section on risk factors (Form 10-Q) where companies are only required to update any changes since the previous report.
According to the SEC, risk factors should be reported concisely, logically and in “plain English” so investors can understand them.
How can I use TipRanks risk factors in my stock research?
Use the Risk Factors tab to get data about the risk factors of any company in which you are considering investing.
You can easily see the most significant risks a company is facing. Additionally, you can find out which risk factors a company has added, removed or adjusted since its previous disclosure. You can also see how a company’s risk factors compare to others in its sector.
Without reading company reports or participating in conference calls, you would most likely not have access to this sort of information, which is usually not included in press releases or other public announcements.
A simplified analysis of risk factors is unique to TipRanks.
What are all the risk factor categories?
TipRanks has identified 6 major categories of risk factors and a number of subcategories for each. You can see how these categories are broken down in the list below.
1. Financial & Corporate
- Accounting & Financial Operations - risks related to accounting loss, value of intangible assets, financial statements, value of intangible assets, financial reporting, estimates, guidance, company profitability, dividends, fluctuating results.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights – risks related to things that impact share prices and the rights of shareholders, including analyst ratings, major shareholder activity, trade volatility, liquidity of shares, anti-takeover provisions, international listing, dual listing.
- Debt & Financing – risks related to debt, funding, financing and interest rates, financial investments.
- Corporate Activity and Growth – risks related to restructuring, M&As, joint ventures, execution of corporate strategy, strategic alliances.
2. Legal & Regulatory
- Litigation and Legal Liabilities – risks related to litigation/ lawsuits against the company.
- Regulation – risks related to compliance, GDPR, and new legislation.
- Environmental / Social – risks related to environmental regulation and to data privacy.
- Taxation & Government Incentives – risks related to taxation and changes in government incentives.
3. Production
- Costs – risks related to costs of production including commodity prices, future contracts, inventory.
- Supply Chain – risks related to the company’s suppliers.
- Manufacturing – risks related to the company’s manufacturing process including product quality and product recalls.
- Human Capital – risks related to recruitment, training and retention of key employees, employee relationships & unions labor disputes, pension, and post retirement benefits, medical, health and welfare benefits, employee misconduct, employee litigation.
4. Technology & Innovation
- Innovation / R&D – risks related to innovation and new product development.
- Technology – risks related to the company’s reliance on technology.
- Cyber Security – risks related to securing the company’s digital assets and from cyber attacks.
- Trade Secrets & Patents – risks related to the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and to infringement claims against the company as well as piracy and unlicensed copying.
5. Ability to Sell
- Demand – risks related to the demand of the company’s goods and services including seasonality, reliance on key customers.
- Competition – risks related to the company’s competition including substitutes.
- Sales & Marketing – risks related to sales, marketing, and distribution channels, pricing, and market penetration.
- Brand & Reputation – risks related to the company’s brand and reputation.
6. Macro & Political
- Economy & Political Environment – risks related to changes in economic and political conditions.
- Natural and Human Disruptions – risks related to catastrophes, floods, storms, terror, earthquakes, coronavirus pandemic/COVID-19.
- International Operations – risks related to the global nature of the company.
- Capital Markets – risks related to exchange rates and trade, cryptocurrency.