Saudi Arabia-based HALA, a leading fintech company specialising in embedded financial services for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has successfully raised $157 million in a Series B funding round, making it one of the largest fintech Series B rounds in the Middle East.
The round was led by The Rise Fund (TPG) and Sanabil Investments (a PIF-owned company), with participation from QED, Raed Ventures, Impact 46, MEVP, Isometry Capital, Arzan VC, BNVT Capital, Kaltaire Investments, Endeavor Catalyst, Nour Nouf Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, and Wamda Capital.
HALA, founded in 2018 by Esam Alnahdi and Maher Loubieh, provides SME banking and freelancer solutions, including business accounts, payments, POS systems, corporate cards, and lending products. The company serves over 142,000 MSMEs, processing more than $8 billion annually, and is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals to enhance SME contribution to GDP.
With this investment, HALA aims to strengthen its leadership in Saudi Arabia, expand lending and embedded finance offerings, and accelerate regional growth. This move comes as SMEs, which represent 90–99% of private sector businesses, contribute 20–35% of GDP—around $310–375 billion annually—and employ over 4.7 million people.
Esam Alnahdi, Co-founder and Chairman of HALA, stated:
“This landmark investment is a turning point for HALA, reflecting on our relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence in serving small businesses. We are honoured that our new investors recognise the potential of our vision and the impact we aspire to make in the MSME landscape.”
Maher Loubieh, Co-founder and Group CEO of HALA, added:
“We are honoured by the continued trust and support of our existing investors… As we look at the next phase of our growth, we believe that our diverse group of prominent investors bring valuable global expertise and perspective which will elevate our ambitions to execute with even greater scale and impact.”
