Fintech NALA secures $50 million to power global expansion

The facility starts with a $25 million tranche, with an option to scale to $50 million, to support global expansion, product development and cross-border payments infrastructure.

NALA's founder and CEO, Benjamin, said the funding will strengthen liquidity for real-time payments and expand its corridors across Africa and Asia, while it continues to hold more than 50% of its 2024 $40 million equity round, avoiding dilution.

NALA added that it remains in a strong capital position, still holding more than 50 per cent of the funds raised in its 2024 $40 million equity round. It said this allows the new credit facility to be deployed without further dilution to existing shareholders.

“The financing from Liquidity validates our vision of building the definitive stablecoin payments infrastructure for the long term,” said Mr Fernandes.

He said the company’s rapid growth had, at times, outpaced its ability to pre-fund cross-border payments.

“We grew faster than we could handle pre-funding for single direction payments and everything broke,” he said. “Liquidity came in quickly and were highly flexible. This is a lifeline for us. It provides the cash required for NALA to pre-fund customer accounts and unlock our next phase of growth.”

Liquidity said the facility was designed following detailed analysis of NALA’s operational model, including its stablecoin-based payment rails and real-time settlement infrastructure.

“Our team structured a facility that accounts for NALA’s compliant stablecoin rails, real-time cross-border payments and rapid growth in emerging market corridors,” said Paul Brodie, global head of investments at Liquidity.

He said the firm conducted extensive scenario-based stress testing before structuring a tailored financing solution aligned with NALA’s scaling requirements.

Justin Langen, director at Liquidity, said the financing was structured to adapt to the company’s growing transaction volumes and expanding geographical footprint.

“We worked closely with management to co-develop a tailored credit solution rather than relying on an off-the-shelf approach,” he said.

NALA has recorded rising demand for its business-to-business stablecoin payment services over the past year, particularly from enterprise clients seeking faster cross-border settlement solutions.

The company said the new funding will enable it to pre-fund larger enterprise accounts and support contracts expected to go live in 2026.

NALA operates a consumer payments application alongside Rafiki, its business-to-business payments infrastructure API, which provides access to more than 249 banks and 26 mobile money services across 16 countries.