Fintech startup Tala, one of the fastest growing fintech startups in the world, has opened its first engineering hub in the country in Bengaluru. The startup plans to tap into the premier tech talent pool and build a team of 40 employees by 2018. 

Tala's Chief Technology Officer, Johnny Lee, stated, “Bengaluru has an exceptional pool of technology and engineering talent, and we couldn't be more excited to set up Tala's Engineering Hub here, in the IT capital of India. Engineers here will have the opportunity to work closely with Tala's existing global offices to develop and launch localized lending products to address the needs of over 700 million financially underserved people in India.”

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Tala was founded by Shivani Siroya, an Indian-origin entrepreneur in 2012. The startup aims to broaden access to credit and financial services by harnessing non-traditional data. Tala's proprietary credit model leverages alternative data and state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to assess the creditworthiness of thin-file customers. 

The hub comes as Tala is now expanding into India and Mexico. Tala plans to build India as the hub for its Asian operations and the Bengaluru team will play an integral role in executing Tala's vision for the market in the region. The team will focus on developing high impact, cutting-edge products, right from the conceptualization stage.

The startup which has raised over $105 Mn in funding from investors such as Ribbit Capital, Lowercase Capital, Collaborative Fund and Female Founders Fund, has additional offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam, Manila and Mexico City. Tala currently employs over 250 people across its offices. 

Image Credits: Revolution