NALA raises $40m to build cross-border payments for emerging markets
NALA, a UK fintech company, announces that it has raised $40 million in Series A funding to support its global expansion and enhance the reliability of payments to Africa by developing its payment rails.
The past 12 months have been transformative for NALA. The company achieved a 10x increase in revenue, reached profitability, and had positive cash flow. In the past 20 months, NALA saw a 34x increase in transaction volume. The NALA team has grown from just 7 members to a robust team of over 100. Finally, today, NALA proudly serves 500,000 customers.
The $40 million funding round was led by Lauren Kolodny of Acrew Capital, who was featured in Forbes Midas list in both 2023 and 2024. With participation from DST Global Partners, Amplo, represented by Sheel Tyle, additionally, the majority of previous investors increased their stakes by taking super pro-rata investment in the round. New investors participating include: Norrsken22, HOF Capital, and notable fintech founders investing in this round include Ryan King, co-founder of Chime, Vlad Tenev, the co-founder of Robinhood, and the founder of Klarna.
The new funding will accelerate NALA's global ambitions focusing on two things: first, NALA consumer business expanding beyond Africa, building services for the global migrant diaspora.
Second, Building Rafiki, its new B2B payments platform. Rafiki is designed to lay the payment rails for the next billion users, ensuring reliability, managing treasury directly, improving error mapping, reducing user costs, and streamlining payouts and collections. Similar to how dLocal revolutionised payments in Latin America and AirWallex transformed the Asian market, Rafiki is set to build a robust payment infrastructure for Africa.
This is NALA’s second round of fundraising in 20 months, having raised $10 million through Accel, Amplo, and Bessemer Partners in 2022. Other notable angels who are investors include Jonas, the co-founder and CTO of Monzo, Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev. Laura, the co-founder of Alloy, Deel founder Alex Boaziz, early employees at Revolut and Wise.
Benjamin Fernandes, Founder and CEO of NALA, said: "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. 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."
