The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2017–2025
HALA's pivot bet: Saudi micro-firms, not consumers, take the $157M
Riyadh fintech HALA started as a consumer wallet, then bet micro-businesses were the real gap; the pivot scaled it to 140k firms and a $157M Series B.
HALA (Hala Holding)
What the business is
HALA is a Riyadh fintech providing embedded financial services to micro, small and medium enterprises and freelancers: business accounts, card issuance, payments and transfers, POS terminals and data-driven lending — an alternative operating bank for small firms.
Starting capital：Series B of $157M in Sept 2025 co-led by TPG's Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments at a reported valuation around $900M; earlier $6.5M Series A in 2021; acquired UAE payments firm Paymennt in Feb 2023.
How it started
Co-founders Maher Loubieh, an investment banker, and Esam Alnahdi set up HALA in Riyadh in 2017. The first product was a peer-to-peer / digital-wallet service aimed at consumers, which attracted hundreds of thousands of users but left the founders unconvinced about the economics. The customer conversations that mattered, they found, were with micro and small businesses struggling to open accounts, accept card payments and get credit — so the company rebuilt itself around them.
What happened
HALA obtained licensing from Saudi's central bank and built a full SME stack: business accounts, cards, payments, transfers, POS hardware and lending. After a $6.5M Series A in 2021 it acquired UAE payments firm Paymennt in Feb 2023, and by Sept 2025 it reported more than 140,000 businesses and over $8B of annual transaction volume. On 2025-09-15 it announced a $157M Series B — one of the largest fintech Series B rounds in the Middle East — co-led by TPG's Rise Fund and Sanabil (PIF's investment arm), with QED, Raed, Impact46, MEVP, Wamda Capital and others participating.
How it ended up
Still scaling as of Sept 2025: the Series B is earmarked to deepen lending and embedded-finance products for MSMEs and freelancers in Saudi Arabia and to expand regionally, building on the Paymennt acquisition and a team HALA describes as the future 'bank of SMEs'.
Background
HALA is a Riyadh-based fintech that acts as an operating bank for Saudi micro, small and medium businesses: business accounts, card issuance, payments and transfers, POS terminals and data-driven lending for MSMEs and freelancers. It was founded in 2017 by Maher Loubieh and Esam Alnahdi and is licensed by the Saudi central bank.
The company's first act was different: a consumer-focused peer-to-peer payment and digital wallet product that attracted hundreds of thousands of users but weak economics. The founders concluded the underserved customer was not the consumer but the small business — the shopkeeper, driver or freelancer whom banks would not onboard and could not underwrite — and rebuilt the entire company around that segment.
The pivot compounded: a $6.5M Series A in 2021, a February 2023 acquisition of UAE payments firm Paymennt, and growth to more than 140,000 businesses processing over $8B in annual transactions by September 2025. Owning the payment rails means HALA sees each firm's actual cash flow, which it uses for credit decisions traditional lenders cannot make.
On 2025-09-15 HALA announced a $157M Series B co-led by TPG's Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments, with QED, Raed Ventures, Impact46, MEVP, Wamda Capital and others participating — one of the largest fintech Series B rounds in the Middle East, reported at a valuation of around $900M, earmarked for deeper lending and regional expansion.
What has to be true
- Saudi banks under-served micro-businesses structurally, while the state was pushing SME contribution to GDP — HALA picked a gap with policy tailwind and no dominant incumbent.
- The pivot reused what worked: the wallet phase built payment infrastructure and SAMA licensing, so the SME business stood on rails instead of starting from zero.
- Owning transaction data made HALA a better lender: it could underwrite from real cash flow, which banks with no SME data could not do cheaply.
- The 2023 Paymennt acquisition added regional card-payment capability, turning a Saudi accounts play into a Gulf-wide embedded finance stack.
- The $157M Series B with TPG Rise and Sanabil validated the model with patient, growth-stage capital rather than forcing premature profitability.
What can be applied
HALA's wallet proved it could build; the durable business hid in the customer nobody courts. The SME pivot reused those rails and trust to reach 140k firms and a ~$900M valuation.
Aftermath
As of 2025-09-21 HALA is scaling as Saudi Arabia's leading MSME fintech: over 140,000 businesses, more than $8B in annual transaction volume, and roughly $900M valuation after the September 2025 Series B. The stated plan is to expand lending and embedded-finance products for MSMEs and freelancers, grow regionally from the Paymennt acquisition, and keep building toward the 'future bank of SMEs'. Its main risks are Saudi banks and regional neobanks moving down-market into the same segment, and credit losses if its data-driven lending scales faster than underwriting quality.
Sources
- TPG, Sanabil lead $157 million fundraise for Saudi fintech HALA
- Hala's ambitious vision to become the future bank of SMEs with Maher Loubieh
- Saudi Fintech Hala Raises Landmark $157M Series B
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