With various jobs in microfinance and investment banking at companies like Credit Suisse, UBS and Citi on her résumé, it’s safe to say Shivani Siroya was all about numbers, stats and figures when it came to starting a company. In fact, one statistic inspired her to leave her career in finance to launch Tala, a smartphone lending app that serves people in underserved and emerging markets.
“What really compelled me to solve this problem was the fact that only about 30% of the adult population worldwide is covered by a credit bureau,” says Siroya. “It made me realize that there are billions of people around the world who are not even seen and don’t even have an identity. That felt really wrong.”
Founded in 2011, the Santa Monica, California-based fintech startup developed an Android app that gives instant credit scores to people in markets like Kenya, Tanzania and the Philippines. The credit score is based on daily-life data from their smartphones. Tala also acts as a lender, granting loans between $10 and $500 USD to a mobile wallet. To date, it has granted more than $225M in microloans.
Earlier this year, Tala raised $65 millionin April from Revolution Capital, Lowercase Capital and Female Founders Fund, among other firms, bringing its total funding to more than $105 million. The capital will back expansion plans into Mexico and India. Tala loans are an average of $50 with an interest rate of 11%, with a repayment rate of more than 90%.
While a quantitative mindset led to the launch of Tala, it was the results of her qualitative research that kept her inspired throughout her entrepreneurial journey. Before Tala, she had worked for the UN Population Fund where she interviewed more than 3,500 people across nine different countries in West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. During this assignment, she met hardworking people around the world who couldn’t access a loan because they lacked a “financial identity.”
“I got to walk in the shoes of our customers,” says Siroya. “I think that was a life-changing moment, but in addition to that, I began to viscerally believe in this customer and understand the problem.”
We caught up with Siroya at this year’s Forbes Women’s Summit. To learn more about how she built a mission-driven startup from start to finish, read the Q&A with Siroya below.
She also breaks down her process for fundraising. Watch the Forbes off-stage video, where she walks us through her step-by-step process for raising capital for a startup, be it a seed or growth round.