Remitly is moving into a new headquarters office in downtown Seattle.
The digital remittance company confirmed to GeekWire that it has secured space at the Rainier Square Tower, with plans to relocate from its current office — just around the corner at 1111 3rd Ave. — next year.
Remitly did not provide details about square footage, but said the new space is larger than its existing office. Remitly employs more than 450 people in Seattle, and more than 2,700 worldwide.
The new office is “intended to create additional space for meetings and collaboration,” said Remitly spokesperson Kendall Sadler.
Remitly reoriented its current office after the pandemic to provide more space for collaboration and meetings. Sadler said the company is taking a “thoughtful approach to return-to-office and believes that in-person connection is important to effectively delivering for our customers.”
She said most employees are “regularly spending time together in the office.”
Rainier Square, located at 1320 4th Ave., is one of the city’s newest skyscrapers. Amazon originally planned to occupy 30 floors but backed out in 2019, putting the high-profile 58-story building on the sublease market.
Last fall, grocer PCC said it was closing its store at Rainier Square, blaming a lower number of office workers in the city center.
Average daily worker foot traffic in downtown Seattle is still increasing year-over-year but appears to be stabilizing — and is just 53% of total traffic in May 2019, according to data from the Downtown Seattle Association.
Seattle lags behind most other large U.S. cities in regard to its downtown recovery.
However, Rainier Square saw “robust leasing activity” in the first quarter, The Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
Founded in 2011, Remitly’s mobile technology lets people send and receive money across borders, including immigrants in the U.S. and U.K. who support families back home in countries such as the Philippines, India, El Salvador, and others. The service eliminates forms, codes, and agents typically associated with the international money transfer process.
Remitly went public in 2021 and is the most recent company out of Seattle to go public via traditional IPO.
The company reported revenue last year of $944.3 million, up 44% year-over-year. Active customers in the first quarter grew 36% year-over-year, to 6.2 million. The company is unprofitable, reporting a net loss of $21.1 million in the first quarter.
Remitly’s stock is down more than 30% this year.
Speaking at a Harvard Business School panel earlier this year in Seattle, Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer said the company is looking to new technologies such as AI to boost customer support automation and prevent fraud.
