“Can a SAMA-licensed EMI become the default bank for Saudi Arabia's MSMEs and freelancers under Vision 2030?”
Founded in 2017 as Halalah, Hala began as a digital mobile payments platform for Saudi merchants and rebranded as Hala. Operating as a SAMA-licensed Electronic Money Institution, it has expanded well beyond payments into a full embedded-finance stack for MSMEs and freelancers — IBAN business accounts, Visa/mada cards, POS hardware, expense management, payroll, and SME financing. The $157M Series B in 2025 — one of the MENA region's largest fintech rounds — positions Hala to scale into being the 'future bank for SMEs' in Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030.
Hala discloses Hala Payments Company (in-house, SAMA-licensed EMI) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Hala does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Hala Payments Company (in-house, SAMA-licensed EMI).
Hala processes payments through Hala Payments (self-operated, SAMA-licensed EMI), POS device acquiring (in-house) and mPOS / SoftPOS (in-house).
Hala's cards are issued through Hala (in-house, Visa & mada network).
Hala's lending and capital products are provided by Hala Financing (in-house).
Hala's payroll is powered by Hala (in-house).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Hala's stack: Payments / PSP (Hala Payments (self-operated, SAMA-licensed EMI), POS device acquiring (in-house) and mPOS / SoftPOS (in-house)); Banking / BaaS (Hala Payments Company (in-house, SAMA-licensed EMI)); Card issuing (Hala (in-house, Visa & mada network)); Lending (Hala Financing (in-house), Hala POS Financing and Flexible SME financing); Payroll (Hala (in-house)).
Hala is founded in 2017 and headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Hala has raised ~$163.5M in total (latest round: Series B, 2025; valuation: ~$900M (2025)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Hala and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.