Remitly Global (NASDAQ:RELY) reported record third-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings as customers sent more money through its network, while management outlined plans to invest in business payments and cards alongside its core remittance operations.
Revenue rose 22% year over year to $510 million in the third quarter of 2026, and net income increased sevenfold to $67.6 million, or $0.30 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA reached $121 million, representing a record margin of 24%, Chief Financial Officer Vikas Mehta said.
For 2027, Remitly expects revenue growth at the lower end of a high-teens range and an adjusted EBITDA margin broadly in line with its 2026 outlook. Mehta said the company faces a difficult comparison with the period following the initial implementation of a 1% remittance tax, while foreign exchange volatility, geopolitics and macroeconomic conditions remain hard to predict.
Customer activity and margins rise
Quarterly active customers increased 17% to 10.3 million, while send volume rose 25% to $24.4 billion. Send volume per active customer reached a record of more than $2,350, up 7%, as customers made more transactions and the mix shifted toward business and large transfers, Mehta said.
Transaction margin dollars rose 27% to $347 million, and the transaction margin expanded 312 basis points to 68%. Mehta attributed the improvement to customer activity, lower transaction losses, better partner economics and network scale. Free cash flow was $88 million.
Asked about the pace of active-customer growth, Mehta said new customer acquisitions increased year over year and net dollar retention reached a record. He also noted that Remitly revised its second-quarter active-customer figure following a data migration and that the previous quarter had been a record for new customer acquisition.
Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Gunningham said the company’s pricing engine uses data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to price transactions in real time. He argued that Remitly can compete on price while expanding margins because of its scale and cost structure.
Business payments and cards
Remitly ended the quarter with more than 30,000 business users across 26 countries, according to management. Gunningham said the company plans to expand into payroll in 2027 and believes business payments could eventually generate as much revenue as consumer remittances.
Remitly’s newer businesses are expected to account for about 5% of revenue in 2026 and more than 10% by 2028. Mehta said the card business is expected to ramp through 2027, with a material impact beginning in 2028 and beyond.
The company is expanding general availability of its Remitly Global Card to customers across the U.S. Card customers in the country can now send and request money from one another domestically, a move Gunningham described as part of Remitly’s push into customers’ everyday financial lives. Separately, the Global Receiver Card is available in four countries, Mehta said.
Remitly also launched sending from Brazil, its first country where customers can both send and receive through the app, Gunningham said. Nearly 84% of transfers now arrive in under a minute, he added.
Large transfers face India headwind
Large-transfer volume grew 25% year over year in the third quarter, while volume outside India increased 80%, Mehta said. The company said India volumes were affected by the Reserve Bank of India’s temporary foreign-currency mobilization measures, which began in the second quarter and ended in August.
In response to an analyst’s question, Mehta said it was difficult to quantify the measures’ effect on Remitly’s growth rate. He said the scheme attracted more than $125 billion, which money transfer operators largely did not capture. Although the program pulled forward some activity, he expects the impact to stabilize over time.
Outlook and capital allocation
For the fourth quarter, Remitly expects revenue of $531 million to $533 million and adjusted EBITDA of $104 million to $106 million. For full-year 2026, it forecasts revenue of $1.989 billion to $1.991 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $441 million to $443 million, an adjusted margin of about 22%.
Mehta said the fourth-quarter outlook assumes normal transaction losses and higher marketing spending per active customer as Remitly invests in growth. For 2027, he expects more normalized investment spending after a reassessment of business initiatives contributed to lower-than-expected expenses in 2026.
Remitly recently increased its revolving credit facility to $1 billion from $550 million and raised its share repurchase authorization to $500 million from $200 million. The company repurchased $14.4 million of stock in the third quarter and had bought back 4.5 million shares year to date, Mehta said.
About Remitly Global (NASDAQ:RELY)
Remitly Global, Inc is a digital financial services company that enables consumers to send money internationally. Its platform is designed primarily for immigrants and other customers who regularly transfer funds to family and friends in their countries of origin.
Through its mobile application and website, Remitly allows users to initiate cross-border remittances and select delivery options such as bank deposits, mobile-wallet transfers, cash pickup and, in some markets, home delivery.
