Remittance startups have been a huge help for migrants who want to send money to their relatives. These companies make money transfer easier and more convenient for people's lives.
For this part, we will talk about one of the most prominent remittance firms in the world, Remitly, which was founded by CEO Matt Oppenheimer more than 10 years ago.
Let's find out how he started this company up to its success in the industry.
How Remitly Started
(Photo : Remitly)
Find out how Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer started with his remittance startup.
According to Fortune, Oppenheimer first began founding Remitly back in 2011 after seeing the unfortunate condition of Africans who wanted to send and receive money from their family members.
Indeed, he saw the difficulty of working abroad just to provide for the needs of the family. He grew inspired by it and decided to build a startup focused on remittance.
Oppenheimer was aware of the competition in the market since many companies such as WorldRemit and Western Union have been heavily dominating the industry.
Remitly, which was based in Seattle, reached a huge milestone after it went public. Following the initial public offering or IPO, the shares of the company skyrocketed in trading.
Oppenheimer was able to raise $300 million thanks to it. At that time, each share was priced at $43. It's way higher compared to the previous offer, which only falls from $38 to $42.
When the company officially opened, its IPO price even surged to $52.90. The valuation of Remily rose to nearly $8 billion, which was impressive for Oppenheimer and his team.
"I would say I feel proud, excited, and optimistic," Oppenheimer said in an interview with Fortune.
He added that he's very excited to contribute to the lives of immigrants and their families in terms of launching world-class financial services for them.
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IPO is an Important Step
Additionally, the Remitly CEO said that declaring for the IPO was an important step for the company. Speaking of which, Oppenheimer said that he would roll out a mobile technology that will help many families worldwide, per Geekwire.
To be honest, Matt was not actually into a remittance-centered firm. He was planning to start a company that would focus on a remittance service search engine.
For those unfamiliar with the previous name of the firm, it's called Remitly in the past. The company's launch was an ambitious part for Oppenheimer, who only wanted to help those immigrants by sending cash to their loved ones.
As for the success of Remitly, Matt believes that people should "fall in love with a problem that you want to solve" and not on the solution.
Who is Matt Oppenheimer Before He Founded Remitly
Per the company's official website, Matt has previously worked for financial service firm Barclays before constructing Remitly. He worked there from 2009 to 2011.
He also became one of the BECU board of directors in 2018. Aside from that, he was hailed as the EY Entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest in 2016.
Matt graduated with a B.A. Psychology at Dartmouth College. He pursued his master's degree at Harvard Business School.
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Written by Joseph Henry
