How Stellar’s $40M Investment In Tala Will Give Millions Access To Financial Services

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has made a fresh bet on the financial services sector. According to a press release, the institution participated in a $145 million series E for Tala.

A global technology company working on providing millions of people with access to lend, borrow, and other financial services Tala reached an over $350 million funding with support from the SDF and its Enterprise Fund, Upstart, and others.

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Launch in 2020, the SDF’s Enterprise Fund provides support, in U.S. dollar or XLM, to payments companies with a cross-border approach, companies that provide financial inclusions in emerging markets, access to tokenized assets, and other criteria.

The fund was launch with the objective of investing in companies capable of bringing real world use case and contribute with the Stellar ecosystem.

Tala will use the funds to create a crypto product to attract mass adoption especially oriented to developing countries. In these countries, over 3 billion people lack options to participate in the global financial sector.

Thus, Tala will leverage cryptocurrencies, mobile technology, and data science to provide people with tools to increment their wealth and achieve economic independence.

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Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director for the Stellar Development Foundation, claimed that their investment in Tala represents their confidence in the company’s potential. Dixon added:

Joining forces with Tala to improve access to financial services for millions of people in emerging markets is exactly aligned with our mission at Stellar Development Foundation. Since the Stellar network leverages interoperability with the world’s existing financial systems, Stellar and Tala technology together are a powerful tool to bridge gaps for those who have been left out.

The CEO and Founder of Tala Shivani Siroya said the following on their progress over the past years, trying to improve the traditional financial system, and their future:

This new investment will accelerate our path to becoming the primary financial account for the global underbanked and helping millions more people make progress in their financial lives. Paul Gu and Denelle Dixon are visionary leaders who share our commitment to building a financial system that works for everyone and we are thrilled to welcome them to the team.

The Co-Found and Head of Product at Upstart Paul Gu claimed that Tala has begun to solve one of the most important issues for consumers in the developing world by providing with access to financial services. Gu said:

Upstart shares Tala’s belief that technology is the key to unlock access for the underserved, and we’re excited to support them in serving the next 1 billion people entering the financial system.

As NewsBTC reported yesterday, Stellar has been making relevant developments, getting major partners such as payment giant MoneyGram, and investments in 2021. This network ecosystem seems to be growing as the year ends.

This has translated into positive performance for Stellar’s native asset XLM. Over the past 2 weeks, this cryptocurrency has been one of the best performing assets in the crypto top 25 with a 35.7% profit.

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In lower timeframes, as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and the rest of the cryptocurrencies in the top 10 move sideways, XLM records a 2% and 3.5% profit in the daily and weekly charts, respectively.