Shivani Siroya, Founder CEO Of Tala, A Revolutionary Fintech Company

Masa should put his money in Tala, not WeWork. Although WeWork is fine. But Tala is way more impactful. Masa needs to put $30 billion into this.









Shivani Siroya
The Founder Of Tala On Her Leap From Finance To Fundraising For Her Mission-Driven Startup
Shivani Siroya
With $65M, Tala Goes Global: Q&A With Shivani Siroya and Female Founders Fund
GE 193: How TEDTalk Speaker Shivani Siroya Built Financial App Tala That Has Dispersed $50M+ in Emerging Markets to 1M+ Global Customers (podcast)
Shivani Siroya Of Tala On What It Takes To Build Company Culture Across Time Zones
With loans of just $10, this startup has built a financial services powerhouse in emerging markets
Shivani Siroya
Tala, a Company That Offers Loans for as Little as $10, Just Raised $110 Million
A Tech Founder on Why Being an Outsider Is a Strength
Give People Some (Micro) Credit—and Transform Their Lives
Bringing financial services to emerging markets with Shivani Siroya the Founder and CEO of Tala

Shivani Siroya, Founder CEO Of Tala, A Revolutionary Fintech Company @shivsiroya https://t.co/0jg1BiXSBf

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) September 11, 2019

Shivani Siroya, Founder CEO Of Tala, A Revolutionary Fintech Company @talamobile https://t.co/pBgUNjhc3R

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) September 11, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain

The Blockchain: The Unavoidable Governance Issues

"You say your product will solve problems for the underbanked. So how many of your users are underbanked?"

"I don't know."

People (smarter than I) doing crypto policy know you can't credibly use the underbanked as human shields like this.

— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) July 17, 2019

And to be clear, crypto policy people use the underbanked as a perfectly credible example of the technology's virtues... it's just that they back it up with, you know, data.

— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) July 17, 2019

True, those same people have never even taken the time to speak to an underbanked person. If they did they would realize why no one has actually done it. Paxful has been doing it on the ground in Africa for 4 yrs now. They taught us what bitcoin is good for #p2pfinance pic.twitter.com/G0IVu3LROJ

— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) July 17, 2019

Why is it that despite the fact that the dollar a day people are much, much better at paying back their loans than the educated, rich people in a place like NYC that the banks have a history of ignoring the dollar a day people? I don't think it has been malice, for the most part. I think the processing costs for a loan has been just too high to take it to the dollar a day people. Now that has fundamentally changed. The costs are on their way to zero. Which is to say, the Blockchain will positively impact the close to two billion unbanked, and almost that many underbanked (a lot of whom are right here in the US), more than the other groups. For the same reason why drones are taking off in Rwanda like no place in the US or Europe, and why mobile phones penetrated India so fast.

The Underbanked And The Blockchain https://t.co/gQCgQTE9pN @msantoriESQ @raypaxful @Rich_Downing @tabali_tigi @Ronaldhow@sull @kumavis_ @MacDadiso @fcmartinelli @cryptodinner @nivertech @CryptoMtnDrew @DDGaddis @CryptoRegs @JosephLoretta @jbrukh @chochoichoy @AndreaTinianow

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 18, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain https://t.co/gQCgQTE9pN @jperla @jdrive @airrrr @moniquebachner @HectorRosekrans @pyskell @OtterKnockOut @katyaandme @hakanai_df @xavieriturralde @jillruthcarlson @MindsFiction @ferfernandez84 @GinisAlexander @oliverbeige

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 18, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain https://t.co/gQCgQTE9pN @LuggageDonkey @asglidden @DollarJones @paulith @DoWithCare @dremannBTC @sarahmarville @HaileyLennonBTC @p_miller_ @vaclavspac @sedcHH @oppcreator @ALaudino @soppstu @tabali_tigi @Cypherm0nk @WelliThink2 @UnbankTheBanked

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 18, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain https://t.co/gQCgQTE9pN @akiddo @dstadulis @eosnewyork @markjeffrey @odoudin @DerekAndonian @sudogene

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 18, 2019

The Underbanked And The Blockchain https://t.co/gQCgQTE9pN @blockchain @Cointelegraph @CocosBCX @goBLOCKCON @coindesk @AskBlockchain @celiaszadeh @bchaininsider @calblockchain @rashmiranjan @ibm @howardlindzon @nycbigapps @anoopkansupada @ibmblockchain @teedubya @chainleak

— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) July 18, 2019

Mobile Banking For The Unbanked

Image via Wikipedia

Banking Technology: Mobile Banking For The Unbanked: Of the 6.9 billion people on our planet, just 30% (2.1 billion) have bank accounts. But 75% – 5.2 billion people - have mobile phones. ..... In Africa, bank penetration runs at between 10 and 50% – while mobile comes in at 40-100%. In Asia-Pacific, the figures are 20-60% for bank penetration and, again, 40-100% for mobile. And in Latin America, it's between 30 and 60% for bank and 60-80% for mobile. ..... it will be 2015 before most consumers in the developed world use their mobile phones to manage payments. ...... By contrast, while there is no great sense of urgency about mobile banking and payments among consumers in developed markets, in the developing world there is a strong appetite for mobile. ....... In these emerging markets, mobile banking could bring about a fundamental shift in the consumer experience - giving many millions of people who have never had access to bank accounts or to credit and debit cards the opportunity to quickly, easily and efficiently pay for goods and services and tap into the convenience economy those of us in developed markets now take for granted....... a disruptive technology that could unseat them and make way for more agile players with a closer relationship with the end customers and a track record of servicing them? ...... In March 2007 Safaricom, the leading mobile operator in Kenya, launched an SMS-based money transfer system that enables consumers to deposit, send and withdraw funds using their mobile phones. Use of M-PESA skyrocketed, with the system quickly being adopted by more than 35% of Kenya's adult population. The winner here is clearly the mobile operator. ....... The right regulation needs to be in place if mobile banking and payments services are to be really safe for consumers. ...... . The banks have strengths that the mobile network operators cannot boast, but they also need to tap into the agility and the reach of the mobile network operators, and the technology of the device providers....... when it comes to innovation in mobile payments and financial inclusion, collaboration is key: whether it is between banks or between banks and the other key mobile industry players.

Just like mobile phones have been tools for democracy activists across the Arab world - very much still unfolding - the mobile phone can also be a tool to cure poverty. I think it is the most potent of all tools. And I expect its capabilities to, if anything, expand.

In the Global South, mobile is about leapfrogging. There are steps you skip.