Tala Surpasses 10 Million Customers Worldwide

Tala, a global financial platform has announced a significant milestone by reaching 10 million customers across East Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The achievement coincides with the company celebrating its tenth anniversary.

The company attributes this  steady growth to strategic expansion into key markets, the team’s work to earn and keep customer trust  and customer centric product innovations .Tala was born in Kenya as a market pioneer in 2014 and has since served over 3.5m Kenyans and disbursed more than $2.3b (Ksh300b).

Tala’s focus remains  to provide financial services to the global majority, a population traditional systems could not serve due to a lack of credit scores. By leveraging novel data to proxy economic activity, the company achieved impressive 90 percent repayment and 95 percent repeat rates for its flagship instant credit product. With nearly $6 billion in credit disbursed worldwide since the company’s inception, Tala is poised to maintain its trajectory of serving the world’s underbanked.

“Reaching ten million customers is a testament to Tala’s unwavering mission and founding value of radical trust. I’m deeply grateful to the ten million customers for placing their trust in us, to our dedicated team for relentlessly working to unlock financial access and agency, and for the tens of millions more we hope to have the privilege of serving. Together, we are reimagining the financial system and demonstrating that a more equitable future is possible for all,” remarked Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO of Tala.

The year 2024 has been transformative for Tala, marked by notable achievements in leadership, innovation, and strategic partnerships. Tala reinforced its commitment to diversity and excellence with key executive appointments, including Michael Olson as Chief Operations Officer in November, contributing to an executive team that is now 80 percent women, and Damier Xandrine as Chief Legal Officer in July.

The company also expanded its product offerings with the October launch of its first self-custody crypto wallet in Latin America, further solidifying its presence in emerging markets. Earlier in the year, Tala established a $48.5 million loan channeling partnership with Maya Bank in April to enhance financial access for Filipinos.

Tala’s thought leadership shone through its September collaboration with the Atlantic Council, culminating in the publication of an in-depth report on the global majority. Meanwhile, industry recognition came in May, as Tala earned a spot on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 for the fifth consecutive year, and again in February, when Forbes named Tala to its Fintech 50 list for the eighth year running.

In 2025, Tala plans to expand its reach in its current markets through new products and utilizing AI’s potential while also opening new markets to further unleash the economic power of the global majority.