US credit startup bullish on Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — US-based financial technology (fintech) startup TALA is bullish on its business in the Philippines where it is poised for faster customer and loan growth after serving its 100,000th borrower in less than a year of operations.

Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO of TALA, said the startup remains optimistic about its prospects of reaching more underserved customers in the Philippines.

Siroya said the company operates in regions where there’s incredible opportunity and demand for its product due to large unbanked and underbanked populations. “The Philippines is our first market in Southeast Asia: first, because of sheer growth potential; second, because it has one of the first central banks in the world which assembled a unit to specifically work on financial inclusion,” she added.

TALA’s local disbursement partners include Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands, Cebuana Lhuillier, Coins.ph, and Palawan Express while 7-Eleven, M. Lhuillier, and Cebuana Lhuillier accepts loan payments.

It is a global player in the credit and loans space that runs a mobile platform geared towards expanding financial access, choice, and control for the underserved globally.

Through an app that was launched in Kenya back in 2014, TALA is able to disburse loans from P1,000 up to P10,000 even to individuals without a credit history.

“It helps to be in a dynamic environment where startups like ours are coming in to close gaps using technology,” she said.

To evaluate creditworthiness, the TALA app analyzes over 10,000 data points from a would-be borrower’s mobile phone: from basic information, to the size of one’s support network, to routines like bills payment.

“Tala is committed to putting our customers first at every interaction. Filipinos who use the app love its speed, convenience, and privacy. A transaction like this requires a kind of radical trust between TALA and the borrower—on one hand, we are absorbing the risk of a default; from the customer’s side, they are giving to us important information,” Siroya said.

To date, TALA’s global repayment rate is above 90 percent. It has delivered more than 5.4 million loans amounting to $260 million in four countries including the Philippines, Kenya, Tanzania and Mexico.

“In the Philippines, we are making a commitment to serve more unbanked and underbanked Filipinos by improving our services and engaging more partners,” she said.