Remitly Raises Funding From Visa To Expand Cross-Border Money Transfer Services

By Dan Anderson ● May 16, 2021
  • Remitly — a mobile-first provider of remittances and financial services for immigrants — announced new funding from Visa. These are the details.

Remitly — a mobile-first provider of remittances and financial services for immigrants — announced new funding from Visa. On the heels of a major year for Remitly, Visa has made an equity investment in the digital provider — showcasing confidence in the quality and continuity of Remitly’s vision to provide transformative financial services products for immigrants across the globe.

Further deepening the relationship between the companies, Remitly is also extending an earlier partnership with Visa, to integrate Visa Direct (Visa’s real-time push payments platform) to help enable Remitly customers in the United States to send funds to eligible Visa debit cards in countries around the world. And through this extension, Visa and Remitly will continue to work together to further expand cross-border transfer services and provide customers affordable, convenient, and secure money transfer solutions.

Since the start of last year, Remitly more than doubled its reach in the number of available receive countries, from 49 to over 100 – while also launching send functionality in Singapore. And Remitly’s mobile wallet network also expanded by over 100% worldwide. 

Through the partnership with Visa Direct, Remitly has unlocked more choices for its customers to send real-time cross-border payments to eligible Visa debit cards. And Visa’s technology and breadth of network — coupled with Remitly’s rapidly expanding digital network — is aiming to bring a superior experience for customers who have more send options than ever before. Customers are also able to track their transfer to know exactly when and where their money will arrive, underscoring Remitly’s ongoing commitment to ensuring its customers’ peace of mind.

Remitly is taking a customer-centric approach to service, expansion, and innovation. And Remitly is committed to meeting customers where they are across the globe and solving for key pain points to enable financial inclusion for immigrant customers. Together, Visa and Remitly are accelerating that mission by providing more secure and convenient money transfer solutions, and expanding accessibility.

Remitly had first announced its partnership with Visa in March 2019, providing customers another fast, secure, and transparent channel to send and receive funds from the United States to eligible Visa debit cards across borders. Visa also supports Passbook by Remitly.

This new round of funding from Visa comes on the heels of Remitly’s $85 million Series F round in July 2020. And at a time when its customers were rapidly shifting to digital services to continue sending money to loved ones across the globe through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Series F funding has helped power the organization as it expands its money transfer network into new markets, further developing its suite of digital financial services products, and reaches new customers worldwide.

KEY QUOTES:

“Over the last two years, our partnership with Visa and integration of Visa Direct, has bolstered our cross-border money transfer network and provided our customers with even more options to send and receive money all over the world. After a strong initial collaboration with the world’s leader in digital payments, we’re excited to bring even more payment disbursement innovations to the forefront in the years ahead, and serve our customers with speed, convenience, and optionality.”

— Matt Oppenheimer, Remitly Co-Founder and CEO

“Remittances are a lifeline for the 200 million workers around the world3 who rely on this service to quickly and securely move money to their families. By expanding on our collaboration with Remitly through Visa Direct, we look forward to unlocking new corridors and help give people more options to digitally send and receive funds to friends and family around the world.”

— Ruben Salazar, SVP and Global Head of Visa Direct, Visa