Make smarter decisions on the cross-border B2B payments market

Cross-border B2B payments are hot right now, and investors are backing the fintechs that move business money between countries.

We've found a lot of interesting signals. For example, in December 2025, Airwallex, which gives businesses accounts and payments in many currencies, raised $330M at an $8B valuation. And in May 2026, Wise moved its main listing from London to Nasdaq, after moving $243B across borders for people and businesses in its latest fiscal year. Private and public investors are both paying for companies that make global payments cheaper and simpler.

In this section, we look at why more companies now pay abroad through fintechs instead of their bank, which routes and customers move first, and where stablecoins fit in.

Paying abroad is still slow and costly for most firms. Money passes through several banks, fees pile up, and nobody can say exactly when it will arrive.

We compare six types of cross-border payment companies, from international transfers and multi-currency accounts to local collection accounts, global payouts and payment APIs. Their customers range from exporters and importers to marketplaces and software platforms. Then we rank their biggest pains, like hidden currency margins, payments stuck in compliance checks, and suppliers paid late.

This shows which routes and customers will pay to switch first, and where the bank is still good enough.

Currency margins, transfer fees, subscriptions for multi-currency accounts, card fees and interest on client balances: cross-border payment companies earn money in several ways.

We compare who pays and what each payment really costs. The currency margin is often the biggest source of revenue, but it shrinks as prices become easier to compare. Licences and local accounts cost a lot up front, then lower the cost of each payment. Compliance teams grow with every new country. And interest on client balances falls when rates do.

You'll see which models still make money as currency margins get thinner, and which ones depend on customers not checking the rate.

A growth rate is only useful if you know what drives it. Here, we go through those forces.

The obvious drivers are small firms selling abroad online, supply chains spread across more countries, and the G20 push to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper by 2027. Others reinforce each other. More local licences mean more payments settle without a chain of banks, which cuts costs. Lower costs bring in smaller firms. And each new route makes a platform more useful to the customers it already has.

Before building or investing, you should know what makes a finance team move its international payments away from its bank, and what stops it from moving back.

Payoneer and Ebury are well known in cross-border business payments, but they're only a small part of the market.

Many interesting players work behind the scenes. Some only pay suppliers in Africa or Latin America. Others give exporters local accounts so they get paid like a local company, or sell currency pricing and payout APIs to software platforms that never show their name.

They're hard to compare because each one is strong on different routes. A company that is cheap from the US to Mexico may be slow from Europe to Nigeria. And many sell under a bank's or a platform's brand, so their volume stays hidden.

Below, you'll find the market grids and ecosystem maps we've built to show who moves money on which routes, who holds the licences, and where new players are getting in.

Convera, Nium, Thunes… a few companies now move large volumes of business money across borders.

Convera handles international payments and currency risk for businesses, after starting life as Western Union's business payments unit. Nium sells an API that lets platforms pay out in many countries. Thunes runs a network that connects banks, wallets and payment companies across markets. Each took a different route, and none has proven that its model works on every corridor.

We'll look at how these companies picked their first routes, earned the trust of banks and regulators, and kept their margins as exchange rates got easier to compare.