Global payments enablement and software company Flywire Corporation has entered into a new strategic partnership with KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform. KnowBe4 has selected Flywire as its preferred partner for global accounts receivable (A/R) and international payments.
The newly signed three-year agreement will provide KnowBe4 with an invoicing and payments solution tailored for enterprise-scale needs. The cybersecurity firm, which currently serves over 70,000 organizations worldwide, has committed millions of dollars in annual payment volume through the Flywire platform.
Scaling operations and ditching legacy providers
As KnowBe4 continues its rapid global expansion, the company required a robust, scalable solution to replace legacy payment providers and streamline its complex cross-border workflows. By combining Flywire’s invoice-to-cash software with its proprietary global payments network, KnowBe4 can now automate its entire invoice-to-cash lifecycle for customers across hundreds of countries.
The integrated offering is expected to provide the cybersecurity platform with several core operational upgrades:
- End-to-End A/R Automation: The integration will streamline billing, collections, and payment processing within a single platform. This automation is expected to drive significant back-office efficiency gains, reducing the time spent on manual reconciliation by approximately 95 per cent.
- Global Reach and Reduced Transaction Costs: KnowBe4 will gain the ability to accept and settle payments in over 140 local currencies across more than 240 countries and territories. By utilizing local processing capabilities, KnowBe4 expects to capture millions of dollars in potential savings by optimizing exchange rates and reducing global transaction fees.
- Accelerated Revenue: A single, robust integration into KnowBe4’s system of record will eliminate the technical burden of maintaining multiple different payment providers. This “future-proof” approach is designed to reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), improve cash flow predictability, and deliver significant IT resource savings.
Transforming payments into a growth enabler
Vlad Kaplunsky, VP of tax & treasury at KnowBe4, emphasized the importance of modernizing the back office to fuel long-term expansion.
“As KnowBe4 continues to expand its footprint around the world, we required a sophisticated payments partner that could scale alongside our global operations,” Kaplunsky stated. “By integrating with Flywire, we are not only providing our international customers with a more seamless and localized payment experience, we are also driving significant value by automating complex back-office workflows. This partnership allows our teams to move away from manual reconciliation and focus on the strategic initiatives that will fuel our long-term growth.”
Yuneeb Khan, chief financial officer at KnowBe4, echoed this sentiment, calling the partnership a “critical milestone in strengthening our international finance operations as we expand our global footprint”.
Ryan Frere, EVP and GM of B2B at Flywire, noted that KnowBe4 represents the exact kind of high-growth technology leader that Flywire’s infrastructure was built to support.
“Their finance team was managing an increasingly complex web of cross-border payments, manual reconciliation, and disparate systems – all while trying to scale rapidly across new markets,” Frere explained. “We’re giving KnowBe4 the infrastructure to get paid faster, reduce operational drag, and deliver a better experience to their customers worldwide. This is what it looks like when payments stop being a bottleneck and start being a growth enabler.”