Seattle-based mobile remittance company Remitly has acquired Symphoni, a small Seattle startup building software that helps immigrant and underserved small business owners access credit.
Remitly describes itself as the largest independent mobile remittance company in North America. The company, ranked No. 7 on the GeekWire 200 index of top Pacific Northwest startups, said it was drawn to Symphoni in part because of an aligned mission to navigate the highly-regulated financial services industry.
Symphoni, which was bootstrapped, will discontinue its current offerings as a result of the acquisition. Symphoni’s three employees — co-founders Bayo Olatunji, Amanda Shen, and Marvin Cheng — will join Remitly’s New Initiatives team.
“Our customers are ambitious, hard-working, and financially responsible — you’d think traditional financial service companies would be fighting to earn their business,” Shivaas Gulati, Remitly co-founder who leads engineering for New Initiatives, said in a statement. “We’re earning their business in remittances today, and with the acquisition of the Symphoni team, we are going to be much faster and better able to meet their other financial needs tomorrow.”
This is Remitly second acquisition; in 2015 it bought Talio, a mobile messaging company that let users send moving selfie photos.
Remitly is now active in 40 nations worldwide. In March, the company announced a major deal with Visa. Remitly is one of the most well-funded startups in the Seattle region, having raised $175 million to date, and employs 200 at its HQ with an additional 814 people at offices in Nicaragua, the Philippines, and London. Remitly was a finalist for Next Tech Titan at the GeekWire Awards earlier this month.
