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

Reynaldo Marquez

3 years ago

3 mins read

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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.

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.

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.

Stellar New Partnership And A Future Of Financial Inclusion

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.

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.

Stellar XLM XLMUSDT — XLM with minor profits in the daily chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview

Reynaldo Marquez

A literature major, Reynaldo Márquez has been deeply immersed in the crypto industry since 2017. His journey began with translating articles for various crypto news outlets, a role he took on with zeal. In 2018, amidst a challenging market, he embraced his first writing assignment, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to the nascent industry and the promise of change it bears for many people worldwide.
In March 2021, he joined the prestigious crypto news outlet NewsBTC and Bitcoinist, where he not only reported on the latest crypto news but also had the privilege of interviewing some of the industry's most influential figures. A year later, his dedication and hard work were recognized, and he was promoted to Managing Editor, a position he currently holds with pride.
He believes in honesty, good communication, hard work, and the power of cryptocurrency and its potential to transform people's lives, especially those alienated by the legacy financial system. Born in 1992 in Venezuela, Reynaldo is familiar with how governments and central banks can negatively affect people, their everyday lives, and their futures by creating inflation and erasing their hopes for a better future. Thus, like many Venezuelans, he embraced this new technology to help him and his family navigate difficult times.
In another life, Reynaldo would have pursued a career as an investigator, most likely tracking down the origins of the Cyberpunk movement with the publication of William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer.’ The intersection between fiction and reality, with the materialization of Bitcoin in 2009, would have allowed him to dive deep into the crypto sphere as something more than a financial phenomenon but also a cultural shift in society that was brewing since the XX century, and maybe even sooner, in the XIX century with the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience.’
But that’s for another life. In this one, Reynaldo has been trading to improve his trading skills. Since 2023, he has been trying to learn Python to create successful strategies and find ways to execute them. It is a difficult task, which continues to keep him busy today and will most likely continue to keep him busy in the near and long term.
In his free time, he enjoys lifting heavy objects, reading, watching movies, and listening to his favorite music. Some of his favorite authors are Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Mario Vargas Llosa, Reinaldo Arenas, Rafael Cadenas, and many others. Lately, he has been primarily interested in reading about dystopic societies, a topic that deeply resonates with the crypto industry.
Since 2023, he has lived in Spain with his wife. He loves the weather, the food, and the people and their culture. They both expect to travel much more within the country they now call home and beyond its border. He hopes to retire with his wife, maybe in a quiet place near a beach, but most likely in a city close to a library and a university with his kids and, hopefully, grandkids.

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