Nala, a fintech startup founded by Benjamin Fernandes, has secured a $40 million Series A funding round to expand its mission of building payments for the next billion people, primarily in Africa and other emerging markets.
The round was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from DST Global, Amplo, Norrsken22, HOF Capital, and notable fintech founders like Ryan King (Chime) and Vlad Tenev (Robinhood, Klarna).
This investment marks a significant milestone for Nala, which has seen remarkable growth in the past 12 months, including a 10x increase in revenue, profitability, and a 34x rise in transaction volume.
The company’s team has expanded from just 7 members to nearly 100, serving a customer base of almost 500,000 worldwide.
Nala’s consumer money transfer app enables users to make secure and reliable payments from Europe, the UK, and the US to 11 African countries in seconds.
The company is also building its B2B platform, Rafiki, to facilitate fast payments to individuals and businesses globally on the African continent.
The new funding will allow Nala to accelerate its global ambitions in two key areas:
- Expanding its consumer business beyond Africa to build services for the global migrant diaspora.
- Developing Rafiki, its B2B payments platform, 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.
