Flywire's Andrew Ong pilots growth in Asia Pacific, wins Executive of the Year for Financial Technology

The Regional Managing Director for Asia Pacific has grown Singapore into a bustling headquarter.

Andrew Ong was the first employee of financial technology firm Flywire in Asia Pacific, working out of a Starbucks back in 2015. From a one-man operation just four years ago, he has steadily expanded the team to more than 70 FlyMates (employees) across four cities in the region, solidifying Singapore as the company’s headquarters for regional expansion.

Under Ong’s strong leadership marked by indefatigable enthusiasm and strategic acumen, the APAC team was able to quickly establish the Flywire brand and grow the business to the point of contributing more than 50% of total global revenue.

This remarkable growth story from zero revenue to a multi-million dollar business was recognised by the Singapore government in 2017 when Flywire was awarded the MAS Singapore Fintech Festival award.

Having established APAC as a key market for Flywire with strong momentum, Ong and his team are looking to further accelerate expansion.

Flywire currently works with more than 300 clients in the APAC region, focusing on vertical payment and receivables solutions and uncovering new opportunities in the education, healthcare and travel industries.

Flywire’s robust and flexible product suite has also been a key differentiator, with clients able to tailor the payment experience for their customers and create a single point of visibility and control for payer engagement and receivables management.

The solution spans the entire transaction process, from invoicing and payment through reconciliation when collecting payments from more than 200 countries globally.

In addition, Ong has made sure that new and existing Flywire customers are equally taken care of, ensuring access to 24/7 end-to-end customer support. Recognising the importance of language and platform flexibility, the team has been offering multilingual servicing via phone, email, and chat, as well as around-the-clock online payment tracking.

Flywire’s exceptional growth profile in APAC has attracted the interest of top investors, including Bain Capital, F Prime Capital (Fidelity), Spark Capital and more recently Singapore-based Temasek. The fintech company was recently mentioned in Forbes as one of the five industry game-changers for 2020.

The Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards was held on 26 November 2019 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

The 2019 winners were judged by a panel consisting of Henry Tan, Group CEO & Chief Innovation Officer at NEXIA TS; David Chew, Executive Director, Risk Advisory at Deloitte Southeast Asia; Lim Wei Wei, Partner and Practice Leader, Governance and Risk at Baker Tilly TFW; Yang Eu Jin, Partner and Co-Head of Capital Markets Practice at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP; and Pardeep Singh Khosa, Director at Davinder Singh Chambers LLC.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be awarded as one of the most outstanding management executives of Singapore, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected]