Saudi Arabian embedded finance company HALA has raised $157 million in a Series B funding round led by TPG's Rise Fund and Sanabil Investments, the venture and growth capital arm of an investment vehicle associated with Saudi Aramco. The round, disclosed in September 2025, ranks among the largest fintech Series B transactions closed in the Middle East to date, and reflects sustained institutional appetite for technology-driven financial services companies that target the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise segment of the Saudi economy, a market that has historically been underserved by conventional banking infrastructure.
The proceeds from the round will be used to strengthen HALA's market position in Saudi Arabia and to expand the suite of embedded financial services it provides to MSME operators. The company has built a platform that integrates payment acceptance, working capital lending, and basic financial management tools within a single technology layer, enabling small business owners to access the financial products they need directly through the operational software and devices they already use, without navigating the separate application processes and documentation requirements that characterise traditional bank lending relationships.
INVESTORS AND STRATEGIC RATIONALE
TPG's Rise Fund, the impact-oriented vehicle within the US alternative asset manager's broader portfolio, has directed a meaningful proportion of its global investment activity towards financial inclusion-adjacent opportunities in emerging and developing markets. Its participation in the HALA round reflects the fund's analytical framework, under which expanding access to productive financial services for small businesses in high-growth economies is expected to generate both attractive commercial returns and measurable positive economic and social impact. Sanabil Investments, which has established a consistent track record as a backer of Saudi technology and fintech companies through multiple market cycles, adds domestic institutional credibility and a network of relationships across the Kingdom's regulatory and commercial environment.
The combination of an international impact investor and a Saudi sovereign-affiliated institution in the lead positions is characteristic of the funding architecture that has emerged for the Kingdom's more prominent technology businesses over the past several years. This dynamic is closely linked to the Vision 2030 economic diversification programme, which has placed explicit emphasis on developing a knowledge-based private sector and supporting the growth of domestic technology champions capable of competing with international peers across a range of financial and digital services markets.
MSME FINANCE AND SAUDI MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises represent a substantial share of Saudi Arabia's private-sector employment and economic output outside the hydrocarbon sector, but access to formal credit has historically been a constraint on their ability to invest, hire, and scale. Conventional bank lending has been structured primarily around larger corporates with established credit histories and collateral, leaving many small business operators reliant on personal savings, informal trade credit arrangements, or financing from family networks. HALA's embedded finance model uses transaction data generated through its payment acceptance product to underwrite working capital facilities, extending credit to businesses that lack the documentation or collateral base required by mainstream lenders but whose operational performance provides sufficient information to support risk-based credit decisions.
The Saudi fintech market has grown rapidly under the regulatory stewardship of the Saudi Central Bank, which has issued a substantial number of fintech licences, established a regulatory sandbox for product testing, and set out a progressive framework for the operation of digital credit providers. HALA operates within this environment, and its Series B raise suggests it has demonstrated sufficient origination scale and credit performance quality to attract institutional capital at a meaningful valuation. The proceeds will support product development, expansion of the merchant acceptance and lending network, and potential entry into additional segments of the MSME financial services market as Saudi Arabia's private sector continues its broader economic diversification.