Tala bags $145 million Series E funding round led by Upstart
By MYBRANDBOOK
The fintech platform, Tala has secured $145 million in a series E funding round led by Upstart. The round also witnessed participation of the Stellar Development Foundation. New investors like Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group, along with existing investors including IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, and PayPal Ventures also joined the round. The total funding moved to over $350 million.
Tala, founded by Shivani Siroya, will use the fund to gear up the roll out of its new financial account experience, which provides customers with fresh tools to borrow, save and manage their money, through Tala’s consumer finance app. Tala is also aiming to grow its team across Kenya, India, the Philippines, Mexico and the United States and pull forward plans for both geographic and product expansion, including crypto offerings.
In 2020, the company entered India and has already had more than half a million users sign up for the platform.
In addition to payments and savings, Tala’s new offerings will include an expanded range of personalized credit options, including longer-term loans and credit that can be configured to match customers’ income cycles. Since launching in Nairobi in 2014, Tala has delivered more than $2.7 billion in credit to more than 6 million customers across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and India.
Tala has plans that the new fund will be used to develop a mass-market crypto product for emerging markets.
“Tala has spent the past seven years delivering critical and valued services in markets where the financial system is fundamentally broken for millions of people," said Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO, Tala. “This new investment will accelerate our path to becoming the primary financial account for the global underbanked and helping millions more people make progress in their financial lives."
Siroya added that the company's loan portfolio was not impacted much by the pandemic. “Our portfolio became stronger after the pandemic. Customers were able to navigate the crisis. Our repayment rate is above 94%," said Siroya.
Siroya added that while India is the company’s newest market, it expects to significantly ramp up the India business in 2022.
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