Dalia Kamar: Taking Stock once again here, live at Money20/20 Middle East. I’m Dalia Kamar, the head of investors and global startups at Money20/20 Global, and I’m so happy to be joined by Davis D. Parakal, the CEO of UAE and GM of GCC at Remitly. Welcome.
Davis D. Parakal: Thank you for hosting me.
Dalia Kamar: Of course. You are no stranger to the Money20/20 world. Remitly operates in almost every single country in the world, but you’ve had a much deeper commitment to the GCC. What are you seeing that makes this region so strategic for you?
Davis D. Parakal: That’s true. This is my third Money20/20. And we have [unclear: “answer some questions”] why it’s so important and strategic for this particular region. If you look at Remitly, which enables cross-border remittance around the globe, the second and third largest markets for cross-border remittance in the world are in the GCC, which is Saudi and UAE. So without expanding and without being here, we cannot say that we are the largest cross-border, or fulfill the mission to be the largest cross-border in the world. That makes it very strategic, very important, and a key corridor for us to open up in the region.
Dalia Kamar: And I think you’ve taken a very localized approach to things. Last time you were here, you signed with [unclear: “Tecmo”]. Congrats on signing here with d360.
Davis D. Parakal: Thank you.
Dalia Kamar: So what have you really learned about the Saudi market and customer that will make this a Saudi-specific project?
Davis D. Parakal: That’s true. I think what you mentioned, the localized investment, Saudi as a market, it is huge. Its potential is very high in terms of growth. And what you see here is extreme growth of locally invested, homegrown startups. And we, being a global company, believe in partnership. That’s the reason we are coming and partnering with the local investors and local people who have grown extremely well here. I was listening to the story of d360 yesterday and was blown away by the journey they have taken in the country as the first neobank. Another fintech [unclear: “previous year”] grew so fast and reached a million customers in X amount of months. I forgot the number of months they told me. But those kinds of journeys we want to be closer to. We have the opportunity of bringing our technology and scale to this region, and also our expertise in cross-border remittance. So we are always welcome to such partnerships.
Dalia Kamar: And partnership really is built on trust, and I think that’s clearly what Remitly started solving: how do I send money back home, and what system do I trust. So if we’re taking stock today, what does Remitly really hope to own in this financial life cycle?
Davis D. Parakal: First and foremost, we are extremely customer centric, and trust is the only thing that actually works, and it needs to be consistent. I was on a panel today, and I was saying it’s not just trust, it’s consistent trust. I was meeting a customer yesterday while I was coming here. I was fortunate to meet a lady at the airport with Emirates who was a customer. She was saying she has been using Remitly for the last eight months, and what made her stick with it is the consistency we give her throughout those eight months. That is trust. It’s easy to break trust in one single transaction that goes bad. So that is where we focus: how do you deliver trust consistently to our customers, keeping their needs at the core of it.
Dalia Kamar: Clear, consistent, and trust. That’s true. And that is Davis, taking stock with us here live at Money20/20 Middle East. It’s a pleasure having you, and we’ll see you next time.
Davis D. Parakal: Thank you.
