{"id":100624,"date":"2025-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/09\/16\/hala-bags-usd-157-mn-to-fuel-sme-lending-push\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:00:00","slug":"hala-bags-usd-157-mn-to-fuel-sme-lending-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/09\/16\/hala-bags-usd-157-mn-to-fuel-sme-lending-push\/","title":{"rendered":"Hala bags USD 157 mn to fuel SME lending push"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Homegrown fintech <\/strong>Hala<\/a><\/strong> secured USD 157 mn in a Series B funding<\/strong>, led by TPG\u2019s The Rise Funds and Sanabil Investments, with participation from other investors, it said on LinkedIn<\/a> yesterday. The round is one of the largest fintech series B rounds in the Middle East and comprises USD 130 mn in equity and USD 27 mn in debt, valuing the company at USD 900 mn, Bloomberg<\/a> reported yesterday, citing a source it said is familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the money going? <\/strong>Hala plans to channel the fresh capital into expanding its financial services and lending products for SMEs and freelancers, while also widening its regional footprint. \u201cNailing financing to basically a base that was never \u2014 and will never \u2014 be served by banks, is something that keeps us excited,\u201d co-founder and chairman Esam Alnahdi told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

More in the works: <\/strong>The firm eyes international expansion into UK and European markets, while also laying the early groundwork for an eventual IPO in the Kingdom, co-founder and CEO Maher Loubieh told Bloomberg. The company may also seek additional equity down the line to fund acquisitions and fuel its fast-growing lending business, Loubieh added.<\/p>\n

REFRESHER-<\/strong> The company joined the Saudi Unicorns Program in October 2024<\/a> \u2014 a milestone that followed its undisclosed amount funding from TPG earlier in May of last year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

About Hala<\/strong>: <\/strong>Founded by Esam Alnahdi (LinkedIn<\/a>) and Maher Loubieh (LinkedIn<\/a>) in 2018, Hala provides embedded financial services \u2014 business accounts, card issuance, payments and transfers, POS solutions, financing and corporate cards \u2014 and serves over 142k businesses while processing more than USD 8 bn in annual transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The round was led by TPG and Sanabil Investments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2556],"tags":[10,208,179],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-100624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup-watch","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-fintech","tag-startup-watch","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"8c7bbc93-500e-4240-922a-1d2cc65d35a6","order":"9","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/2\/505.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Hala bags USD 157 mn to fuel SME lending push","related_issue":[100609],"teaser":"The round was led by TPG and Sanabil Investments","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/9\/.e118cdc5-5f2e-4fe4-8dfa-a853e4c2e442.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nHala bags USD 157 mn to fuel SME lending push - 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