Seattle-based fintech startup Remitly, which focuses on remittances by immigrants, recently saw a 200% growth in its mobile wallet usage in 2020 YTD. The company announced a trans-border expansion of its mobile wallet network on August 26, which could enable them to reach more than 300 million international wallets.
Since the advent of Covid-19 globally in March, Remitly has added 11 payment partners to its wallet service, taking its total service partners to 25. Some of these are renowned companies like M-PESA, MTN Mobile Money, bKash, Gcash, Airtel Mobile Money, GoPay, and Ovo.
Remitly is on the path to growing more than 50% if it proactively follows population trends and keeps providing innovative services to its consumers. Research reports say that the mobile wallet industry can have a valuation of $1.47 trillion this year, thanks to the massive 38.7% Y/Y increase in usage.
The company has attracted many immigrants whose countries-of-origin are in Asia and Africa. Matt Oppenheimer, Remitly Co-founder, and CEO said: “While mobile wallets have been hyped to some degree in recent years, they are quickly transforming financial services in developing countries, particularly in Asia and Africa, and we’re seeing that transformation happen even more rapidly as a result of the current climate.”
Currently, the most frequent paths of remittance transfers are USA to Asia, USA to Africa, and USA to Latin America. A multitude of countries in these continents receives their remittances via Remitly.
