Tala Headed To India After A Huge Investment By Players In The FinTech Space
Tala will be entering India after an investment in million dollars by various investors in the Fintech space. In a series D investment, the finance application raised $100 million to accelerate its business in spaces that have been hardly tapped on.
In venture capital terminology, the term “Series D” Round refers to the fourth stage in the Seed Stage Financing cycle of new business growth. This Series D Round stage is generally for financing a special situation, such as a merger or acquisition, and so is not in the normal venture capital financing progression.
As Tala’s largest market, over 2.5 million Kenyans subscribe to its services owing to the country’s mature mobile money market that has made it easier for its customers to transact loans whether paying or borrowing. The company also has operations in Tanzania, Mexico, and the Philippines.
Companies that contributed to the series D investment are RPS ventures, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, Paypal Ventures among others. India’s FinTech space seems fertile and promising since services like small loans are obtained majorly from banks and not startups.
Tala is, therefore, taking advantage of the inability of India’s citizenry to access basic financial services, including the ability to borrow, save, or grow their money. The digital lender began a 12-month pilot program in India last year to conduct user research and understand the market. It also has a technology hub already set up in Bangalore.
Tala launched in Kenya in 2014 and became the first in the world to offer unsecured loans via smartphone, instantly underwriting customers and disbursing credit entirely through an android app. The company celebrated its five year anniversary this year and currently holds a prominent position as a digital lender in the country. Using a portion of the funds, Tala is currently looking to add to its application other services, with one of those in the pipeline aiming to penetrate the microinsurance sector.
Tala has raised an additional $100M in debt financing over the past year, including $50M led by Colchis Capital specifically for Tala’s Kenya portfolio
