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It was 10 years ago, in 2011, that Matt Oppenheimer was inspired to co-found remittance startup Remitly, after a stint working in Kenya for Barclays showed him just how difficult and expensive it was for ordinary Africans to receive money transfers from family members living and working abroad.
Today, Remitly is among a wave of fintech startups—alongside the likes of Wise and WorldRemit—leveraging technology to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to send and receive money around the world. In addition to competing against each other, these young firms are fighting for market share in a $1.5 trillion cross-border remittance market long dominated by legacy incumbent Western Union.
Thursday marked a particularly important milestone for Oppenheimer and his company, as Remitly’s shares began trading on Nasdaq after an initial public offering. The Seattle-based firm raised roughly $300 million through the IPO, which was priced at $43 per share—above the previously announced offering range of $38 to $42. Shares in the company opened Thursday well above their IPO price, at $52.90, and ended the day up 13% at $48.45, sending Remitly’s market valuation to near $8 billion
“I would say I feel proud, excited, and optimistic,” Oppenheimer told Fortune on Thursday afternoon, adding that he’s “even more excited” about Remitly’s “longer-term vision of transforming the lives of immigrants and their families” by providing them a better class of financial services.
That includes products and offerings beyond its core money-transfer business, which serves more than 5 million customers who sent more than $16 billion in the 12 months through June. Remitly currently lets customers in 17 developed countries send money in more than 75 currencies to over 115 countries. But Oppenheimer acknowledges that the company has only 1% market share in the global remittance market, and diversifying its offerings to grow its customer base is a key part of its “long-term growth strategy,” he said.
That includes services like Passbook, a banking service targeted at immigrants that Remitly premiered last year. The company is also eyeing “strategic partnerships and acquisitions,” Oppenheimer said—with one recent partnership being an alliance with Visa that saw the payments giant invest in Remitly, while also granting the startup access to its Visa Direct money-movement service. Oppenheimer also said Remitly plans to expand its geographic reach beyond the 135 total countries it currently serves, as it seeks to achieve the scale critical to better compete with the likes of Western Union.