Tanzanian Fintech, NALA, Raises $10 Million to Expand to 12 African Countries in 2022

NALA, a cross-border Tanzanian payments startup,has raised $10 million in a new fundraising round. The new raise comes after a 2019 raise at a time when NALA had over over 250, 000 users.

Some of the firms and angels who participated in the latest round include:

• Amplo
• Accel
• Bessemer Partners
• Monzo founder
• Robinhood founder
• Alloy and Deel
• Peeyush Ranjan, the head of Google Payments

The latest round of funds will help towards the startup’s expansion across the continent as it targets a presence in 12 African countries by the end of 2022. The startup is also planning to provide its services in the United States and European Economic Area in Q1, 2022.

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In a statement, NALA’s founder, Benjamin Fernandes, has pointed out that there remains a big opportunity to develop payments in Africa, saying that the sector is only ‘1% built’ and the region is the most expensive in the world to send and receive money.

“Until this changes we are limited by the opportunities of trade across the continent. Over the next fiivee years, while logistics gets better, more places around the world are going to trade in and out of Africa, we are positioning ourselves to be at the forefront of this change.”

– CEO and Founder, NALA

NALA’s remittance offering has seen considerable growth since testing out the product in 2021. The platform allows payments from the U.K. to:

• Tanzania
• Kenya
• Uganda
• Rwanda
• Ghana
• South Africa

So far, over 8, 000 customers have moved over eight figures in transaction volumes to Africa over the last 6 months alone.

“Our core customer base is the diaspora right now who live in the U.K. This is the customer we’re currently serving today as we speak.

We also got our license approvals to go live in the U.S. and the E.U., which will be going live in a month and a half in at least one other E.U. country, probably France.”

– Founder / CEO, NALA

The startup is currently beta-testing multi-currency accounts and business payments features in addition to enabling money transfers from Africa to the U.S. and U.K.

Moreover, its reported that NALA will be launching a crowdfunding campaign in 2022 where its first users will get to own shares in the startup.

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