The story is decades old: Someone immigrates to America seeking higher wages and sends the money back home. But despite half a trillion dollars annually in global remittances, the process is still in the dark ages. It often involves huge fees and long lines at brick-and-mortar shops. The problem is even more acute in cities, which tend to have large immigrant populations.

But Edrizio De La Cruz is trying to change that. The 33-year-old entrepreneur moved from Santo Domingo to Washington Heights, the Dominican enclave in upper Manhattan, with his mother and brother at age 11. Those long waits in line to send cash back to the island? He’s been there. After he dropped out of college and worked repairing airplanes in Queens, he landed at Wharton where Regalii — his answer to Western Union — was born.

Out of a small shop in Washington Heights, Regalii is trying to change the remittance landscape. Rather than wire money straight to your family at a premium — migrants pay an average cost of 9 percent sending money home, according to the World Bank — Regalii goes straight to the source. Want to pay your aunt’s water bill in Santo Domingo? Send your mother part of your paycheck for groceries? Regalii works with more than 400 utility companies, grocery stores and phone companies in the Dominican Republic to let you do that.

And that’s Regalii’s testing ground. De La Cruz said the goal is to expand to Mexico “as soon as possible.” There’s certainly demand: De La Cruz told me Regalii already has 6,000 customers after launching this summer. “We’re growing every week,” he said.

It’s a flat fee of $3 for every transaction. But it also gives those in the States stable footing. They don’t have to mess with predatory lenders and it’s cheaper than the $5 Western Union charges. There’s also a sense of familiarity, as Regalii’s switchboard is in Spanish.

“Trust [with our customers] is a huge factor,” De La Cruz said. “It’s a more direct way of supporting your loved ones. So you actually know how your funds are being spent.”

His ambitions go beyond making it safer and more affordable to send money back to the homeland. De La Cruz also wants to see more Latinos starting businesses.

“When I graduated from Wharton, I felt kind of indebted,” he told me. “I couldn’t go back to investment banking or Wall Street. I needed to do something that would benefit and set a new precedent for Latino entrepreneurship, which they’re really isn’t a face attached to it. So I felt like, given the opportunity I had, I was in a really good position to do that.”

Regalii is still in its infancy, but early returns are promising. De La Cruz wants to eventually expand operations all over Latin America. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other entrepreneurs follow his lead and offer similar services for those with family in Africa and Asia. This is a safe, almost familial way for immigrants to make sure the money they send home is spent wisely. And there aren’t any long lines outside Western Union on payday.

Bill Bradley is a writer and reporter living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Deadspin, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others.

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