NALA, a Tanzanian-founded international money transfer and financial technology (fintech) firm that lets users send, receive, and exchange money across borders, has secured a credit financing facility worth up to $50 million from private credit firm Liquidity. The deal starts with an initial $25 million allocation, but according to a statement by Nala, it can expand beyond $50 million depending on growth and transaction volume.
NALA states that the credit facility will scale through Mars Growth Capital, a joint venture between Liquidity and a Japan-based lender and one of the world’s largest banks, MUFG Bank. It's worth noting that the credit is not a venture capital equity funding; it’s debt financing that gives NALA a working capital without giving away more ownership in the company.
The fund will be used to pre-fund cross-border payments, open more payment corridors, support larger enterprise clients, and process bigger transaction volumes globally. NALA founder Benjamin Fernandes said the business was “more than doubling every other quarter” and they grew faster than their ability to pre-fund transfers.
When an International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) is said to be pre-funding, it means keeping money sitting in different countries and currencies ahead of time so transfers settle instantly. So, the funding will help Nala pre-fund customer transactions seamlessly and instantly.
The company clarified that it still has more than half of the cash left from its 2024 $40 million equity round, so this initial $25 million allocation is not for supporting the balance sheet but to fund the stablecoin-powered cross-border payment expansion amid growing demand for faster cross-border business payments connecting emerging markets with Europe and the United States.
NALA, which started as a diaspora remittance app for sending money into Africa in 2017, is now repositioning itself as a stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure company through its enterprise settlement rails called Rafiki. According to the company, its network spans more than 249 banks and 26 mobile money platforms across 16 countries.
All these NALA operating models—debt financing, liquidity management, pre-funded corridors, and enterprise settlement rails—are the mechanics of financial infrastructure businesses which show that it is not just a consumer fintech app but a payments infrastructure company. Liquidity commented that the funding was structured around Nala’s real-time payment flows and liquidity needs rather than a traditional venture debt model.
