NALA

NALA is a fintech company building payments infrastructure and remittance products for cross-border transactions, with a particular focus on emerging markets in Africa and Asia. Founded in 2021, it operates two lines of business: a consumer money-transfer app of the same name, which has more than 500,000 customers globally, and Rafiki, a B2B payments platform designed to help global businesses trade more effectively with Africa. The company has raised over $50 million in funding and is backed by impact-oriented investors including Norrsken.

The problem NALA addresses is one of cost and reliability in money movement. Cross-border payment fees cost billions of dollars a year worldwide; in Africa alone, roughly $8 billion is lost annually to transaction costs, equivalent to 7-8% of value drained per transaction. In Asia, more than $300 billion in annual remittances incurs fees exceeding $12 billion. Emerging markets account for 45% of worldwide transfers.

For technical leaders, the appeal lies in the engineering surface: payments infrastructure, remittance technology and B2B payments platforms at scale across fragmented regulatory and banking landscapes. The team is distributed across 18 countries, with hubs in London, Nairobi and Dakar, and includes talent from Mpesa, Monzo, Revolut, WorldRemit and Wise.

NALA's stated mission is to build payments infrastructure for the next billion, with an emphasis on serving the underserved and reducing costs in emerging markets.