Tanzania-Founded Fintech NALA Raises $40M to Develop Cross-Border Payments for Emerging Markets

Tanzania-based fintech startup NALA has raised $40 million to support its international expansion and launch its own payment systems for Africa and beyond.

NALA is an African payments company and money transfer app that allows users to make secure and reliable payments from Europe, the UK and the US to Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana in seconds. Last year, launched in the European Union (EU)adding 19 new countries to its destination list and supporting its mission to connect Africans globally.

Over the past year, NALA has achieved a 10x increase in revenue, achieved profitability, and has been cash flow positive, while over the past 20 months it has seen a 34x increase in transaction volume. It is now planning further growth and international expansion, after raising $40 million in Series A funding, in a round led by Acrew Capital with participation from DST Global, Amplo, Norrsken22, and HOF Capital, and investors Ryan King and Vlad Tenev.

The new funding will help NALA’s consumer business expand beyond Africa, creating services for the global migrant diaspora. It also helped build Rafiki, its new B2B payments platform, designed to lay the foundation for payments for the next billion users.

“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 by building a robust payments ecosystem. We are reinvesting this money into improving our infrastructure, ensuring reliable and low-cost payments for all. With the launch of our payments systems and the expansion of our B2B platform Rafiki, we are not just talking about change, we are building it. We have some bold and ambitious plans, give us a couple of years,” said Benjamin Fernandes, Founder and CEO of NALA.

This is NALA’s second round of funding in 20 months, after raising $10 million through Accel, Amplo, and Bessemer Partners in 2022.

Source