Tanzania-based fintech, NALA, has raised about US$ 40 million in its Series A round as the remittances platform seeks to establish a new B2B product.
The raise was led by Acrew Capital, a VC based in San Francisco, alongside DST Global, Norrsken22, and HOF Capital. Existing investors such as Amplo and NYCA Partners also contributed to the raise, boosted by angel investors such as Ryan King of Chime and Vlad Tenev of Robinhood.Nala received seed funding of US$ 10 million in 2022, which helped the company upscale its services to new frontier markets such as Asia and South America. “This $40 million funding round marks a pivotal moment for Nala. It will enable us to go beyond remittances and extend our reach beyond Africa, building a robust payments ecosystem. We’re reinvesting this money to enhance our infrastructure, ensuring reliable, low-cost payments for all,” said the CEO and founder of NALA, Benjamin Fernandes.
NALA’s integration with 249 banks and 26 mobile money services across the world has enabled it to serve a wide range of customers. The platform enables its users to pay bills directly into local mobile wallets like M-Pesa.
“With the launch of our own payment rails and the expansion of our B2B platform Rafiki, we’re not just talking about change, we’re building it. We’ve got some bold, ambitious plans, give us a couple of years,” said Fernandes.
When it was founded in 2017, the initial goal of Nala was to facilitate money transfer within the Tanzanian market. However, due to rising demand in platforms that enhance remittance transfers, Nala invested in this opportunity in 2021.
“We grew our transaction volume 34 times. Our global customer base from 12 to a couple of hundred thousands. Our team went from 7 to nearly 100 and our revenue ten times. This year, we became profitable and cash flow positive,” said Fernandes.
The new B2B product, Rafiki, is meant to phase out challenges in Africa’s payment infrastructure which Fernandes says has been NALA’s greatest headache.
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