Saudi Fintech Hala Partners Visa to Issue Cards and Build Digital Payment Products

Saudi fintech Hala has entered a strategic partnership with Visa to drive digital payment innovation in Saudi Arabia, in a deal that will see Hala issue Visa cards to its users and jointly develop new payment products.

The agreement gives Hala's consumers, entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized business customers access to Visa's global acceptance network, which spans more than 61 million merchants. As part of the collaboration, the two companies will work together on payment solutions tailored to Hala's growing customer base, and Hala will be able to draw on Visa's expertise in international payments, loyalty, fraud and risk management, and data and analytics.

Hala's chief executive, Esam Alnahdi, framed the tie-up as central to serving its existing customers and to the company's ambition of becoming a global challenger bank. Founded in 2016, Hala provides business banking services including accounts, cards, payments and transfers, expense management, point-of-sale solutions and financing, positioning itself as a financial platform for Saudi SMEs.

The partnership follows a period of rapid growth for the company, which last year raised one of the region's largest fintech Series B rounds. It also comes as Visa expands its infrastructure and partnerships in the Kingdom, where card issuance and digital payments are growing quickly under Vision 2030 goals to widen financial inclusion and reduce reliance on cash.

For Hala, adding Visa issuance broadens the reach of its cards beyond domestic rails and supports its plans to layer new credit and payment features on top of its business-banking stack.