Nala bags $40m Series A to scale remittance services
UK-based remittance fintech Nala has secured $40 million through a Series A funding round led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Acrew Capital.
Nala lands $40 million Series A
The round saw participation from existing backers Amplo and NYCA Partners, along with additional support from DST Global, HOF Capital and Norrsken22.
Moreover, Nala’s raise was supplemented by several angel investors, notably Vlad Tenev of Robinhood and Ryan King of Chime.
Writing in a company blog post, Benjamin Fernandes, founder and CEO of Nala, says that the latest financing will be utilised to scale the firm’s consumer business “beyond Africa” to “build services for the global migrant diaspora”.
Reports by TechCrunch reveal that the fintech intends to start its international market expansion in Asia.
In addition, Fernandes notes the company has also earmarked part of the funds to build its B2B payments platform, Rafiki.
Aimed at becoming a “robust payment infrastructure for Africa”, Rafiki, which also powers the firm’s consumer app, has been 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”.
Founded in 2017, Nala aims to tackle Africa’s status as “the most expensive continent to send money to”, as stated on its website. In 2021, it shifted its focus from a local money transfer service in Tanzania to facilitating foreign remittances.
The latest round follows a successful year for the start-up, which reported a 10-fold increase in revenue, achieved positive cash flow and reached profitability.
