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Oct 16, 2024

Fintech Tala Goes Global With Non-Custodial Crypto Wallet | Video | CoinDesk

Tala Founder & CEO Shivani Siroya joins the CoinDesk Live team to discuss how the company is helping unbanked communities with its latest technology, why it is expanding in Peru and how it plans to

Tala Founder & CEO Shivani Siroya joins the CoinDesk Live team to discuss how the company is helping unbanked communities with its latest technology, why it is expanding in Peru and how it plans to accelerate expansion within Latin America.

Peru has one of the greatest percentages of unbanked citizens in the world. World Bank data suggests that over 50% of their population doesn't have a bank account. Joining us now to discuss a potential solution is Shivani Saroya, she's the founder and CEO of Lending app, Tala Shivani, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me here. So I stan you have a major announcement at Still Iridian, tell us what's going on. We do. So we are launching our first crypto wallet. It's a non custodial wallet that is integrated seamlessly into the Tala App experience. And uh it is again leveraging the stellar network and their partners and you are doing some specific efforts in Peru. So yeah, so it's available first in Peru. Um And you know, it is really about how do we open up uh access to financial services to the global underbanked starting in Peru and then, you know, hopefully bringing this to other markets that we currently work in but also um throughout the world. So, you know, I'm just looking at some stats here, Peru. The population is 34 million. They have one of the lowest inflation rates, at least in Latin America. So uh they do have several uh unbanked and under serviced communities there. So zeroing in why Peru uh what, what's the problem there? And how are you solving it? So we started in Peru because even though we see, um you know, again that it is a somewhat developed market in Latin America, we see that the majority of the population still doesn't have wide access to traditional financial products. Um So this is both, you know, full financial services, uh savings deposits, um payments and credit. So we see that with the unbanked. But what we also see is that even customers that have traditional bank accounts are really getting limited access to credit and to these kinds of services. And so we feel like this is an opportunity where it's a market where there is um adoption of crypto um a regulatory environment that is accepting of this, where we can again leverage this technology and bring in a suite of products that are both for the unbanked, but also customers that are still right now, not getting the access that they need from traditional banks. It's funny, I'm interested one in, you know, for our audience just maybe talking about whats is in general. Um And then secondly, in a lot of your materials, you talk about this idea of really supporting the global majority. It's a term we've heard now a couple of times today. Um how are you defining that? And how do you think the financial communities have not stepped up to the plate to serve them? That's a great question. Um So we are serving the global majority. It is about 52% of the world's population. Uh It is a segment that is really overlooked by traditional institutions. I would say both from a need aspect, but also from a capabilities aspect. And so to be able to really serve them in the way that we want to or that we see that we can, it is about really rethinking the financial infrastructure. Um And this is where Tala has been, you know, working for the last 10 years to leverage the best in class technology, um whatever is available at the time. So starting with feature phones, moving to Android technology now leveraging Blockchain and A I um to really be able to widen that access to traditional products. Um So I think in some ways we're already well positioned to do this out and financial institutions would have to completely rebuild their infrastructure or their stock as well as rebuild their own understanding of this customer. Um So I think that's one why this segment has been really left out, but I think it's why that there's such a massive opportunity. Um And one of the goals outside of just providing access to financial products to this segment for us Atala is really about um I would say widening the awareness of the global majority themselves. And so we're partnering with institutions also like Atlantic Council that are outside of, you know, a B to C aspect. And really thinking about how do we, you know, do research on this segment and really talk about the purchasing power and the potential that they have so that more individuals and institutions can come in and see the same opportunities we see. So maybe it would be great if you could outline a real use case because some people, you know, it might get lost in the jargon of all this. But uh you know, in at least Peru, at least you mentioned underserved unan communities that can't get credit. So maybe you could walk us through a case of how and in what context they may be able to access financial system through Taa. Sure. Um So similar to our other markets, um they would go to the Google Play store and they would download our Android application through that. Um They would be able to access a bank account, um looks like any other bank account that they can get within this app mobile application. Um They would deposit money into this, um be able to securely hold that capital, uh be able to get access to credit. And so Tala instantly approves them um using behavioral data as well as android data from there, they can use that money. Um So they're able to actually spend that local stablecoin. Um It's a 1 to 1 backed um to the local currency in Peru. And so they can then pay bills, they can use that for a virtual card. Um And that's the starting point is just access to basic financial products within this application. Um in our other markets, this is not using Blockchain in Peru. It's a crypto wallet, but to the customer, they don't see it as a crypto wallet. They see this as just any other sort of, you know, banking application. Um And so I think that's the power in how we've built this and the beauty of it is that it's masking the crypto aspects and making it really um understandable and, and easy for this customer to use so they can buy things with this app in their local markets and in the background it's doing all the conversions, currencies and, and, and, and, or fees the background. Exactly. And then again, you know, by, by leveraging Blockchain, um it's seamless, it's faster, it's cheaper. And so we're able to then pass on those savings to this customer as well. It's cheaper. So, I mean, I mean, a big uh reason why a lot of people like Bitcoin or rather Blockchain and crypto is that they want to get rid of intermediaries. So in terms of the fees, how, how cheap can you get it? I mean, it sounds ok. So I was gonna say you're starting with Peru, it sounds like the app may look the same whether you're in another location or in Peru. But in Peru, the, the, the plumbing is crypto, where do you see crypto going next in your roll out? So uh we picked Peru also because it is in one of the regions that we already operate in. So we currently work in Kenya in Mexico as well as the Philippines. And so for us, um this is very much a regional approach. And so the same anchors and partners that we're working with to uh launch Peru, we are able to, to work with across Latin America. Um So I think that will be our first starting point is really thinking about, you know, markets like Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina. Um And then from there, start to think about, you know, Southeast Asia and other markets where let's say they are um maybe more crypto friendly or already have early adoption. Uh This is also another question I was asking um another project, but in terms of challenges, would they include, you know, access to a smartphone or internet connection? And how do you deal with that? So at the moment, uh we are Android um only available on Android, but what we're working on is also thinking about, you know, how do we work offline, how do we also work in a web app situation? And so I would say uh next year, you know, that kind of dependency will be removed and that's what I'm excited about is as we think about access to the global majority, we have to be extremely interoperable and available wherever they are. And you know, some of the projects we've spoken with might have 25,000 users. Tale has like 10 million users, right? Yeah. So, so you have a lot of people who are utilizing the app. Um And you're, and you're playing in the billions of dollars uh uh of payments, remittances, loans, et cetera. So, I mean, I, I guess is this really also a test case for you to say, how do we then continue to roll this out? And, and how does that benefit us as a forward thinking innovation company completely? Um So in the last 10 years, we've served nearly 10 million customers across these three major regions. Uh We've already dispersed uh over $5 billion in access to credit to these customers. And so as we think about leveraging this technology, it is about accelerating that expansion and that value that we can provide to our customers. Excellent. And you mentioned A I, so we have to ask how you're using it. Uh And what, what sort of is, how is it like products, your opportunities even more. So I go back to the starting point of starting with where the customer is and understanding their pain points. And in the same way that we think of how can A I actually help us be more efficient how can A I help us solve problems by, you know, gathering information or resources that we may not know about today? That's what we're thinking about for our customers. So, outside of credit and financial products, um there's also advice, there's also, you know, thinking about their mental states and their emotional states. Um and starting to really think about a new playing field in some ways that A I opens up for us in terms of how can we impact their daily lives. You know, you had also mentioned um when deciding to give credit to people, it is looking at all their android behavior. So, I mean, that must mean like a lot of their data is being uh evaluated. Can you, can you tell us a bit about that? So it's actually not their android behavior. It's actually the behavioral data that's gathered within our system. Um So when our customers deposit with us, when they are making a payment to us, um the, you know, number of times that they talk to our customer service agents, um all of that data is actually used within our models. So we, we think of it as android is a platform to access them and for them to on board with us. But ultimately, it's about how do we build a relationship with them and understand them over time and then bring that into our decision? OK. Fascinating. All right. Well, Shivani, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations. Thank you so much. Right. That was Tale founder and Ceo Shivani Saroya and folks. That's the end of our show. I'm your host Christine Lee with my colleague Sam Ewen. Please hit us up on Twitter. I'm at Christine News at Sam Yan. All right. And join us again tomorrow for day two of the stellar meridian conference. We'll have more live coverage as we dive into the markets and learn how crypto is offering hope in Ukraine and the global South. You don't want to miss it. Have a beautiful day.

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