BenjaminFernandes

Noting the millions of dollars spent on transaction fees by Africans, Tanzanian-born Benjamin Fernandes sought to improve the remittance economy through Nala, a consumer payment platform. Using unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technology coming in feature phones, Nala does not depend on internet connectivity and is designed to lower the user’s data costs. After completing his MBA from Stanford, he returned to Tanzania to build a fintech with an African-first approach and received the backing of venture capital firms including Y Combinator, DST Global, and Accel. In 2021, the startup launched its beta international transfers from the U.K. to East Africa and is aiming to soon enable multiple-currency bank accounts for its users.