Remitly stock price surges by 15% as it debuts in Nasdaq
The Remitly stock price soared on Thursday after the payment processor became a new publicly traded company.
Remitly IPO
Remitly Global is a fintech company that is disrupting the remittances industry. The company was started in 2011 with a goal of making it easier for immigrants to send money to their home countries. The decision to start the firm started when the company’s co-founder realized how difficult it was for foreigners to send money.
Over the years, Remitly raised more than $505 million from a group of investors like PayU, Stripes, threshold, and Generation Investment Management. PayU is owned by Naspers. Remitly serves millions of customers and has more than 1,600 employees.
Remitly has seen its business do well in the past few years. It recorded an annual revenue of more than $256 million in 2020. This was substantially higher than the previous year’s $126 million. Still, like many fintech companies, it is also making substantial losses as it attempts to gain market share.
The Remitly stock price jumped by as much as 15% when it debuted in Nasdaq. At the time of writing, the shares are trading at $48, giving it a market capitalization of more than $7.7 billion. This makes it one of the biggest remittances companies in the world. In comparison, Western Union is valued at more than $8.27 billion while MoneyGram is valued at about $1 billion.
Good time for IPO
Remitly’s IPO happened at a golden period for fintech companies. On Wednesday, shares of Toast soared by more than 20%, giving the fintech company a market capitalization of more than $30 billion.
Similarly, Wise went public in London and is now valued at more than $12 billion. Other fintech companies that have done well in the private and public markets are Klarna, Affirm, and Nubank.
