Tanzanian fintech Nala secures $40M Series A funding

Tanzanian payments company Nala has raised US$40 million in Series A funding to be used for its global expansion plans and enhancing its payment systems on the continent.

Headquartered in Kenya, Nala is a fintech startup that allows its users to transfer money from the UK, US, and EU to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.

The new capital injection follows a $10 million seed round in 2022 and will enhance the reliability of its payments systems to Africa by laying down its payment rails, it said.

Nala received funding from several global investment firms such as San Francisco-based VC firm Acrew Capital, DST Global and Amplo, as well as other angel investors.

In a post on X, Nala Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes said the new funding will accelerate the company's global ambitions by focusing on expanding its Nala Money App and building its business-to-business (B2B) payment platform Rafiki API.

"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," Fernandes said.

Nala Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes. (Source: Nala)

"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," he continued.

Nala's growth in recent years

Fernandes said that the Series A funding came after the company's revenue increased tenfold in the past 12 months.

"For the first time, we became profitable and cash flow positive. Over the past 20 months, our transaction volume has increased 34 times," he explained.

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Furthermore, the company has grown from just seven members to nearly 100 staff serving nearly 500,000 customers worldwide.

In March 2023, the company pledged US$1 million investment to create new jobs in Tanzania as well as to support product innovation, after it was granted a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license to operate.

*Top image is of Nala staff at its Kenyan offices. (Source: Nala.)

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa