Remitly, a mobile-first provider of remittances and financial services for immigrants, announced that it has received an undisclosed sum of equity investment from Visa.

News of the funding comes days amidst reports that Remitly is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) in New York this year.

This new funding from Visa comes on the heels of Remitly’s US$85 million Series F round in July 2020. The Series F funding has helped power the organisation as it expands its money transfer network into new markets, further develops its suite of digital financial services products, and reaches new customers worldwide.

Further deepening their relationship, 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.

Remitly 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.

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 2020, Remitly has more than doubled its reach in the number of available receive countries, from 49 to over 100 while also launching send functionality in Singapore.

“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.”

said Matt Oppenheimer, Remitly’s Co-Founder and CEO.

“Remittances are a lifeline for the 200 million workers around the world 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.”

said Ruben Salazar, SVP and Global Head of Visa Direct, Visa.

Featured image credit: edited from Unsplash