Tala

Tala is a financial platform for the Global Majority, offering a money app that bridges digital and cash ecosystems to deliver instant access to credit, payments, savings and transfer services to customers underserved by legacy financial institutions. The company serves more than 13 million customers across three continents and has delivered $7 billion in credit access, at a 92% repayment rate.

At the centre of its underwriting sits Tala InSight, a proprietary AI credit engine built on machine learning models trained on billions of proprietary data points drawn from over a decade of customer relationships. The system is designed to assess applicants who have never interacted with the formal banking system, using alternative data rather than conventional credit histories. Technical work at Tala spans machine learning, credit risk modelling, fintech and digital payments infrastructure, and mobile money applications.

The company operates from its headquarters in Santa Monica, with offices in Nairobi, Manila, Mexico City and Bangalore, serving customers across Latin America, Southeast Asia and East Africa. It has raised nearly half a billion dollars in investments and debt, and has been named to Forbes' Fintech 50 for eight consecutive years, CNBC's Disruptor 50 list four years running, and Fortune's Impact 20.