Tala, a Santa Monica, California, United States-based global technology company committed to financial inclusion, raised $65m in new financing.
The round, which brings Tala’s total financing to more than $105m, included a new $50m Series C investment led by Revolution Growth with participation from existing investors IVP, Data Collective, Lowercase Capital, Ribbit Capital, and Female Founders Fund, and an additional $15m to power its loan book.
In conjunction with the funding, Steve Murray, managing partner at Revolution Growth, will join Tala’s board of directors.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand its business reach and bring its consumer lending app to India.
The company has delivered credit to nearly 1.3 million customers and originated more than $300 million globally
Led by founder and CEO Shivani Siroya, Tala has built a smartphone app, which provides instant credit scoring, lending, and other personalized financial services in emerging markets.
Its proprietary credit scoring technologies use machine learning to process thousands of alternative data points from a customer’s mobile device, including texts and calls, merchant transactions, app usage, and personal identifiers. These signals serve as a proxy for traditional financial data, allowing the company to expand credit access to customers with little or no formal financial history. Tala requires no collateral and disburses loans between $10 and $500 USD to a mobile wallet or via payment rails of the customer’s choosing.
The company launched Kenya’s first smartphone-based lending app in 2014, later expanding to Tanzania, the Philippines, and Mexico. Through its mobile platform, Tala has delivered more than 6 million loans to nearly 1.3 million customers and originated more than $300 million.
The company has additional offices in Nairobi, Manila, Dar Es Salaam, Mexico City, Mumbai, and Bangalore.
FinSMEs
19/04/2018