WEX Inc. is a provider of payment processing and information management services to the United States commercial and government vehicle fleet industry. The company is headquartered in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metro ...

and provides services in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

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, and Australia.

History

The company traces its origins to A.R. Wright, a coal and later heating oil business in

South Portland, Maine South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state, incorporated in 1898. At the 2020 census, the city population was 26,498. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is si ...

. In the 1980s, A.R. Wright began allowing trucks to fuel up without having to pay an attendant by using a post-paid

fuel card A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Mo ...

, leading to the creation of Wright Express Corporation in 1983. Wright Express grew over the next several decades. It went public in 2005. In 2012, it adopted the name WEX, signaling a shift away from focusing on fuel cards and expanding into other payment solutions. In 2019, WEX opened a new 100,000-square-foot headquarters across from the Ocean Gateway International Marine Passenger Terminal in Portland, Maine. The company continues to have a significant presence in South Portland. WEX is one of ten founding corporate partners of the Roux Institute at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North C ...

, which leases a portion of the WEX headquarters campus.

Operations

WEX Fleet provides vehicle fleet customers with

s and data and telematics offerings for drivers. In 2012, WEX Fleet acquired Fleet One to provide fleet cards to drivers. WEX Fleet also partners with

GasBuddy GasBuddy is a tech company based in Boston that operates apps and websites based on finding real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the United States and Canada. They also sell software products to convenience store owners vi ...

OnDeck Capital OnDeck Capital is an online small business lending company in the United States. It has offices in Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Denver, CO, and South Jordan, UT. History Entrepreneur Mitch Jacobs founded OnDeck in 2006 and headquartered the comp ...

, and Chevron, among other companies, to provide services to customers. In 2017, WEX Fleet launched a new telematics platform, ClearView Advanced. The travel segment, WEX Virtual, helps online travel agencies facilitate cross-border payments through virtual cards, allowing online travel agencies to automate back-end accounting practices. WEX Virtual launched in 2000 in support of customers including HitchHiker, HotelTonight, Expedia, and Priceline. In 2014, WEX acquired Evolution1, a cloud-based health industry payments provider, later renaming it to WEX Health. WEX Health Cloud helps to administer HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, VEBAs, COBRA, defined-contribution, wellness plans, and transit plans. Some partners include Fifth Third Bancorp, Paychex, HSA Bank, and Discovery Benefits. In January 2020, the company announced it would acquire travel payments companies eNett and Optal from

Travelport Travelport Worldwide Ltd provides distribution, technology, payment solutions for the travel and tourism industry. It is the smallest, by revenue, of the top three global distribution systems (GDS) after Amadeus IT Group and Sabre Corporation. ...

for $577.5 million.

References

External links

{{authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Service companies of the United States Companies based in Cumberland County, Maine South Portland, Maine 2005 initial public offerings