Nium and Relay Surpass $500 Million in Cross-Border Payments for Small Businesses

Nium and Relay have surpassed $500 million in cross-border transaction volume within the first year of their partnership, highlighting a significant shift in how small businesses manage international liquidity. By integrating Nium’s global infrastructure, Relay has enabled hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises to bypass traditional banking delays when paying international suppliers and contractors.

What was announced

The partnership, which began nearly one year ago, has reached a milestone of $500 million in processed cross-border payments. Nium’s infrastructure now supports more than 500 of Relay’s customers, the majority of which are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). These users have utilized the platform to send funds to 153 different countries, addressing a critical need for reliable international transfers to suppliers, partners, and contractors.

Through the Nium integration, Relay customers can collect, convert, send, and spend funds across borders. The system is designed to provide certainty throughout the transaction lifecycle, from the initial onboarding of the customer to the moment funds arrive in a recipient's bank account or digital wallet. By leveraging modern APIs, Relay aims to provide its users with a clear view of their money, moving away from the delays and uncertainty that have traditionally characterized international transfers. The announcement was made during the Money20/20 USA conference, marking a significant point in the collaboration as the companies look to expand their work together for thousands of additional small business customers.

"Certainty is what businesses need from their business banking and payments partners – from the moment a customer is onboarded to the moment funds are delivered,"

Anupam Pahuja, Chief Business Officer at Nium

The companies involved

Nium is an infrastructure platform for global money movement, providing the technical rails that allow businesses to send and receive funds internationally with the speed and cost-efficiency of local payments. With 57 previous reports from FF News, Nium has established a significant presence in the fintech ecosystem, focusing on removing the friction from cross-border transactions for platforms and financial institutions. Relay, which has been featured in two prior FF News reports, is a banking and money management platform specifically designed for small businesses. It provides tools that help business owners gain visibility into their cash flow and make more informed financial decisions. Unlike traditional banks that may rely on legacy correspondent networks, Relay uses modern technology partnerships to offer global capabilities. The collaboration between the two companies illustrates a broader market trend where specialized infrastructure providers like Nium enable customer-facing platforms like Relay to offer high-performance financial services without building the underlying global payment networks from scratch.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has extensively covered Nium’s efforts to modernize global payment flows. The company recently collaborated to provide Nium and RedotPay Partner to Provide Global Stablecoin Off-Ramping for 9 Million Users, expanding its reach into digital asset infrastructure. Nium’s role in the broader financial system was also noted when Payments Canada Welcomes 6 New Members as Real-Time Rail Modernization Accelerates, including Nium as a key participant. Furthermore, the demand for these services is supported by Nium Research: 65% of Businesses Demand Instant Cross-Border Payments as Bank Gap Widens, which highlighted the growing dissatisfaction among businesses with traditional banking speeds.

What this means

The $500 million milestone achieved by Nium and Relay in just one year demonstrates that the demand for efficient SMB cross-border payments is no longer a niche requirement but a core market expectation. This volume suggests that the "bank gap"—the disparity between what businesses need and what traditional lenders provide—is being aggressively filled by fintech partnerships. For the wider industry, this moves the needle by proving that infrastructure-as-a-service can scale rapidly when embedded into business-focused banking platforms. It places significant pressure on incumbent banks to either overhaul their international payment stacks or risk losing the lucrative SMB segment to more agile, API-driven competitors.