Marathon Partners' Mario Cibelli on digital remittances company, Remitly $RELY

Sep 10, 2024

Mario Cibelli, Managing Partner at Marathon Partners Equity Management, discusses Remitly Global, a leader in digital remittances. He highlights the market's oversight in valuing $RELY and delves into customer trust issues and transaction complexities. The conversation addresses the competitive landscape between Remitly and Wise, as well as the operational hurdles posed by cybercrime. Cibelli also evaluates the potential of stablecoins in transforming remittance costs while pondering what keeps him up at night regarding his investment thesis.

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INSIGHT

Trust Is The Core Currency

Trust and reliability matter tremendously because remittances are lifelines for recipients.
The top customer complaint is always "where is my money," so delivery speed and certainty drive retention.

INSIGHT

Direct Bank Ties And Fraud Ops Are Key Barriers

Building direct banking connections and fraud defenses is technically and operationally hard.
Those barriers create durable advantages for incumbents as volume grows.

INSIGHT

First Send Quality Drives LTV Through Fraud Control

Fraud risk skews early onboarding and initial transaction treatment, making "instant" first sends valuable.
Better fraud controls let Remitly offer faster, higher-quality first experiences and justify higher CAC.

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Mario Cibelli, Managing Partner at Marathon Partners Equity Management, LLC, joins the podcast for the fourth time to share his thesis on Remitly Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: RELY), a trusted provider of digital financial services that transcend borders.

Chapters:

[0:00] Introduction + Episode sponsor: Tegus

[1:58] What is Remitly Global $RELY and why are they so interesting to Mario

[3:22] What is Mario seeing in $RELY that the market is missing that makes this an alpha opportunity (in Mario's opinion)

[8:08] $RELY service use case / question of fees to transfer money / bear case / crypto

[17:25] How does their customer base trust them / why is it so complex to do digital disbursement the right way?

[27:32] Digital fraud / business environment

[35:34] Bear case cont'd. / valuation

[44:48] Thoughts on Wise

[51:13] Marketing expenses

[58:56] Valuation cont'd

[1:02:33] What keeps Mario up on at night on $RELY thesis

[1:08:10] Final thoughts / additional key points investors should be aware of about $RELY, i.e., direct connections

[1:16:34] Stable coins/crypto - why not a risk? Why Mario thinks it's an accelerant?

Episode sponsor: Tegus

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