Transforming Banking for Immigrants – Matt Oppenheimer, Co-Founder & CEO of Remitly

In this episode, Miguel Armaza sits down with Matt Oppenheimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Remitly, a Seattle-based mobile payments platform enabling consumers to send and receive payments around the world that aims to provide the full suite of financial services to immigrants and migrants. The inspiration behind Remitly came when Matt was working in Kenya in 2010 and saw how difficult it was to send and receive money overseas. He began working on the problem immediately and has since grown the business to a rumored 1.5 Billion dollar-valuation in 2020. The company has raised almost $500 million in debt and equity from top industry VCs, including Generation Investment Management, Nasper’s PayU, Stripes Group, Threshold, QED, the World Bank’s IFC, Jeff Bezos, and many more! Matthew Oppenheimer Matthew Oppenheimer is Co-Founder and CEO at Remitly. The inspiration behind Remitly came when Matt was working for Barclays in Kenya and saw how difficult it was to send and receive money overseas. Matt was drawn to the global impact his business could have: remittances eclipse foreign aid in improving global wealth equality and give people who receive them upward mobility. He began working on the problem immediately as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Highway 12 Ventures in Idaho and launched the company from Techstars in Seattle. Matt was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 in the Pacific Northwest and has been recognized as a Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree for his work with Remitly. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dartmouth College. About Remitly Founded initially to disrupt the nearly $600 billion global remittance industry, Remitly is now transforming the lives of millions of immigrants and their families with the most trusted financial services products in the world. Remitly makes international money transfers faster, easier, more transparent and more affordable through its global network. Remitly’s reliable and easy-to-use mobile app eliminates the long wait times, complexities and fees typical of traditional remittance processes, returning millions of dollars in savings and spending power to immigrants every year. Remitly is also expanding its portfolio to include additional critical financial services for immigrants. The company’s Passbook offering is a modern banking solution that eliminates fees and other common barriers to creating a bank account, and introduces new cross-border money transfer benefits. Established in 2011 and headquartered in Seattle, Remitly is backed by more than a dozen industry-leading investors, including Prosus’s PayU, Generation Investment Management and Bezos Expeditions. The company operates globally, with offices in London, Kraków, Manila and Managua. For more information, visit Remitly.com.