HIBT Lab! Tala: Shivani Siroya

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

‘This is not our customer...’

That was the common justification banks used to deny loans to the entrepreneurs Shivani Siroya supported through her work with the United Nations. While it’s not unusual for a tech startup to raise millions before ever launching a product, small business owners across the globe are all-too-often deemed unworthy of even just a few hundred dollars by traditional financial institutions.

In 2011, Shivani set out to change this at scale. Her company, Tala, has since disbursed more than $3 billion in microloans across India, Kenya, Mexico, and the Philippines. Borrowers simply answer a few questions on a mobile app and — within minutes — they have access to capital. What’s more is that the vast majority of the Tala’s loans are repaid, even with such a frictionless vetting process.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Shivani talks with Guy about the lightbulb moments that drove the creation of this vital credit solution and its potential to uplift entire national economies.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:11.8	Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab.
0:14.2	I'm Guy Ross.
0:15.7	So for many of us, a three-digit number can decide a lot for our future.
0:21.0	If we can buy a home, how much our interest rates are, and if we can start a new business.
0:26.8	Those three digits make up our credit score, and there are billions of people around the
0:30.6	world who do not have one.
0:32.2	In fact, many people around the world have no trace of a financial identity whatsoever.
0:38.4	And this means no loan history, no bank accounts, and no credit score.
0:43.2	Shavani Saraya met some of these people when she was working for the UN Population Fund
0:47.7	back in the mid-2000s.
0:49.6	Shavani was based in Africa, where she met entrepreneurs who didn't have access to cash
0:54.5	to expand their businesses.
0:56.3	People who made jewelry or sold food at market stalls.
1:00.0	And they weren't looking for gigantic loans, but rather a hundred bucks or even fifty.
1:05.9	So in 2011, Shavani founded a financial technology company to help the service these micro-anchipinors.
1:12.6	It's called Tallah, and it operates in Kenya, India, the Philippines, and Mexico.
1:17.8	Today, Tallah has loaned out over $3 billion to artisans, taxi drivers, bakers, furniture
1:24.0	makers, you name it, and all in its small dollar amounts.
1:28.5	The vast majority of Tallah's customers have no paper trail, no bank accounts, and no credit
1:33.4	history, so Tallah evaluates their credit worthiness in a very different way by asking them
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Raz | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Raz | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.