The next cross-border payments unicorns

I want to be a unicorn

Earlier this week, Airwallex became the latest payments company to achieve unicorn status.

Unicorn Cross-Border Payments

It followed a winning formula that has enabled it to achieve triple digit growth: it operates in a hot sector (B2B cross-border payments), focuses on China and ecommerce and is very tech forward.

China is hot; last month, Chinese financial services firm Ant Financial closed its acquisition of WorldFirst for $700m.

The next unicorns in cross-border payments

We think five companies have a chance at reaching unicorn status.

Two consumer orientated companies, WorldRemit and Remitly, are currently large enough to be contenders.

Three business-focused groups also have a shot:

Flywire’s receivables product is winning big payment clients from incumbents such as Western Union Business Solutions.
Payoneer is riding the ecommerce wave and focusing on China like Airwallex and WorldFirst.
Ebury has around 20,000 customers and is one of the fastest growing SME-focused payment companies.

But only one metric is going to make the difference: growth. Not linear growth, but growth in the 50-100% range, year on year. That’s the growth TransferWise, Revolut and Airwallex have achieved, which has made them unicorns.

Ian Manns

Ian is VP of Cards & Global Indices at FXC Intelligence. Ian has worked to develop price tracking of banks and non-bank providers, advise on market entry strategies, oversee surveys of both consumers and business users of FX payment providers. Previously, Ian worked at Dun & Bradstreet in their Country Risk Department on international payment risk; worked as a consultant for the World Bank and EUI amongst others. Ian has a masters in International Development from the LSE, focused on social research methods, and a doctorate in Neuroscience from McGill University.