FinTech of the Week

HALA – AI-ready lending infrastructure for India

Dmitry Prostov

27 Sep 2025 — 1 min read

MENA’s $157 million bet on SME finance.

HALA offers business accounts, virtual cards, POS terminals, invoicing, payments, and even shariah-compliant lending to freelancers and small businesses. The Saudi company monetizes through subscription fees and transaction take-rates.

Serving over 142,000 businesses and processing more than $8 billion in annual transactions, HALA just closed a $157 million Series B led by TPG's Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments, with QED Investors, RAED Ventures, and others joining. Co-founder and chairman Esam Alnahdi says the funding will expand lending products and embedded finance across MENA while supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals.

In a region hungry for SME infrastructure, HALA is building the rails.

Every day, we feature one curated fintech on the FinBox Solutions page.

The project with the most votes becomes Fintech of the week.

Is this the super-app that small businesses in MENA have been waiting for?

#fintech #startup #businessmodel #fintechoftheday #MENA #SME

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