Hala UAE
“Can a SAMA-licensed EMI become the de facto SMB and freelancer bank for Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC?”
Founded2017
HQRiyadh, Saudi Arabia
Total raised~$163.5M
Latest roundSeries B, 2025
Valuation~$900M
IndustryFintech / SMB banking
The story
Founded in 2017 as Halalah, Hala began as a digital payments and POS platform for Saudi merchants. It has progressively layered banking-like services on top — IBAN business accounts, Visa/mada cards, expense management, POS-based financing, and payroll management — to position itself as 'the future bank for MSMEs' across Saudi Arabia. Operating under an EMI license from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), the 2025 $157M Series B at a $900M valuation funds deeper banking capabilities and regional expansion.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2017
Founded as Halalah, a digital mobile payment platform in Saudi Arabia.· pivot
2021
Raised $6.5M Series A led by Impact 46.· funding
2023
Appointed former Revolut India CTO Saleem Arshad to drive UK/Europe expansion plans.· leadership
2025
Raised landmark $157M Series B co-led by TPG and Sanabil at ~$900M valuation; expanded suite of banking services for MSMEs and freelancers.· funding
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Hala UAE
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
4 layers disclosed in Hala UAE’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Hala POS (self-operated)Hala mPOS (self-operated)Visa card issuance (self-operated)mada card issuance (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
Payroll
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
3 more providers across 3 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.