Ria Financial chose Denver as the headquarters for Ria Digital, which launched last year to complement Ria's well-established brick-and-mortar business.
The Buena Park, California-based financial services company is part of a $1.5 billion business in Euronet, based in Kansas City. Ria FInancial has about 2,000 employees in all and more than 20 in Denver.
"We are really an end-to-end functioning business unit within Ria Financial," says VP and GM Darren Bruce. "You get all of the pros of the startup with none of the cons. You aren't worried about where your next paycheck is coming from."
Bruce says Denver's deep talent pool is a perfect fit for the Ria Digital. "Denver is an absolutely terrific area, based on the number of startups and digital companies." He says the presence of Western Union means there are plenty of potential employees with relevant skill sets.
Bruce worked for Western Union prior to starting up the Ria Digital office in the Central Business District. Employment growth has been brisk in 2013.
"I was employee number one and now we're at 27 employees," says Bruce. He anticipates adding five to 10 more employees in the near term before "the hockey stick effect" takes hold as sales increase.
Ria Digital has launched RiaMoneyTransfer.com, which ties into a brick-and-mortar network of 200,000 locations in 130 countries, and a third-party payment platform for Boost Mobile this year.
"It matches our customer base," says Bruce of the latter. "We'll be doing many more of those in the future."
Bruce says he likes Ria Digital's prospects thanks to its agile nature. "If we slow down, we lose, but we're confident we're going to win because we're faster."
Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Eric Peterson with tips and leads for future stories at eric@confluence-denver.com.
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