Matt Oppenheimer is co-founder and chief executive officer of Remitly, a mobile remittance company that is redefining money transfers to the developing world. After receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School, Matt worked for Barclays Bank first in London and then Nairobi, Kenya where he oversaw mobile and internet banking initiatives. It was there that he became passionate about solving the difficulty in sending and receiving money from overseas.
He began working on the problem immediately as Entrepreneur in Residence at Highway 12 Ventures in Idaho. He moved the company to Seattle, Washington in order to participate in the TechStars program and has since launched Remitly as a successful and innovative financial services firm.
Matt, the co-founder, CEO of Remitly, the largest independent digital money transmitter in the USA, whose customers transfer more than $6 billion annually. Remitly is disrupting the broken $588 billion remittance industry with its mobile-first money transfer service that is easy, affordable and secure. To date, Remitly has raised more than $150 million from leading venture capital firms.
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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 a MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dartmouth College.
