Tala doubled down on its digital asset endeavors by raising $145 million to launch crypto products for the underbanked.
The California-based firm for financial services – Tala – has raised $145 million in a Series E funding round to offer cryptocurrency solutions to creating nations. This brings its total funding to over $350 million from investors such as PayPal Ventures, GV, and Revolution Growth.
Turning Towards Crypto
In accordance with a CNBC report, the financial service provider Tala plans to make use of the funds to increase its borrowing, financial savings, and cash management opportunities to the next rising countries: the Philippines, Mexico, India, and Kenya. The corporate intends to provide crypto offerings, too.
Shivani Siroya – Founder and CEO of Tala – noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for her firm so as to add more services except for the traditional ones:
“In the course of the pandemic, we noticed the necessity for more than credit and rolled out products past credit, highlighting the account experience that we’re now excited to go accelerate.”
Tala focuses mainly on underbanked customers. In keeping with Siroya, the corporate has lent over $1 billion to hundreds of thousands of shoppers, opining that digital assets have the potential to boost the financial transactions:
“So we’re actually trying to make sure that they’ve a secure place to extra effectively use their cash, and that’s what we’re enthusiastic about in relation to crypto: how can we use this expertise to actually ensure that we’re supporting the important movement of money.”
Tala partnership with Visa
Earlier this year, Tala made its first interaction with the cryptocurrency industry by teaming up with the multinational financial services corporation Visa and the peer-to-peer payments technology company – Circle. Their purpose was to offer underbanked people with the ability to buy, sell, and store the USDC stablecoin.
Under the phrases of the collaboration, Tala would keep the acquired USDC in its digital wallet, which customers could later convert into other cryptocurrencies or fiats. In its flip, Visa gave customers access to the payment supplier’s credit card, thus enabling them to spend the stablecoins throughout all of the retailers that accept those cards.
Again then, Siroya once again praised the potential of blockchain technology, which could resolve international issues of financial inclusion:
“Digital currencies have super potential to radically open financial entry and put extra management immediately into the palms of underbanked and underestimated people.”
Source: CryptoPotato
