Remitly tops 10 million active customers as Q2 revenue rises 20%
Remitly Global has reported its strongest quarter to date, with revenue of $495.2 million for the three months ended 30 June 2026, up 20% year on year, and quarterly active customers crossing 10 million for the first time. Send volume reached $23.5 billion in the period, a 27% increase from the $18.5 billion recorded in Q2 2025, underlining continued demand for cross-border money movement among the company's consumer and business customer base.
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $114.7 million, up 79% year on year from $64.0 million, a sharper improvement than top-line growth and a signal that the Seattle-listed firm is extracting operating leverage at scale. Reported net income of $205.9 million includes a $140.6 million one-off tax benefit arising from the release of a US deferred tax asset valuation allowance; stripping that out, underlying operating profitability remains the more relevant metric for assessing the business trajectory.
Chief executive Sebastian Gunningham attributed the results partly to what he described as AI-driven operating efficiencies creating capacity to invest in growth while improving margins. The company did not elaborate on which specific AI applications are generating savings, but the technology and development cost line fell slightly in absolute terms year on year to $74.0 million from $77.5 million, even as revenue expanded, which is consistent with that narrative.
Raised outlook and forward guidance
For the full year 2026, Remitly now expects total revenue of between $1.978 billion and $1.988 billion, representing growth of 21% to 22% over 2025, an upgrade to previous guidance. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year is guided at $410 million to $415 million. For Q3 2026, the company targets revenue of $505 million to $507 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $92 million to $94 million, implying continued sequential improvement in underlying profitability.
Free cash flow for the first half of 2026 reached $202.8 million, more than double the $111.0 million recorded in the same period of 2025, giving the company significant financial flexibility. Remitly repurchased $65.2 million of its own shares in the first half of the year, a new capital return activity not undertaken in H1 2025, and ended the period with $676.4 million in cash.
Market context and competitive landscape
The cross-border payments sector has seen sustained consolidation and investment pressure. Remitly competes against Western Union and MoneyGram at the established end, against neobank challengers such as Wise and Revolut in the digitally native segment, and increasingly against bank-embedded payment rails as SWIFT gpi and ISO 20022 adoption widens. The 10-million active customer milestone is meaningful: at this scale, network density and brand trust compound in ways that are difficult for smaller entrants to replicate quickly.
Regulators are a persistent variable. Remitly holds money transmission licences across a large number of jurisdictions, and its results release explicitly lists licence maintenance and expansion as a key operational risk. The EU's revised Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and associated Payment Services Regulation are moving through the legislative process and will affect fee disclosure and data-sharing obligations for cross-border operators serving European corridors. In the US, state-level money transmission licensing remains fragmented and resource-intensive.
The company's stated ambition to evolve beyond remittances into a broader cross-border financial services provider, serving both consumers and businesses, places it on a convergence path with embedded finance platforms and business payment orchestration vendors. Whether Remitly can capture that adjacent market while sustaining 20%-plus revenue growth in its core corridors will be the central question for investors over the next several quarters.