Tala, a US-headquartered small loan provider backed by technology conglomerate Alphabet, raised $50m on Tuesday in a series C round led by investment firm Revolution Growth.
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Data Collective, Lowercase Capital, Ribbit Capital and Female Founders Fund also took part in the round, which was closed concurrently with $15m in debt financing. Steve Murray of Revolution Growth will join Tala’s board of directors.
Founded in 2011 as InVenture, Tala operates a microfinance and credit scoring service that enables consumers to access loans between $10 and $500 through a mobile app. It has issued more than $300m in loans to a total of 1.3 million users to date.
The company initially focused on the Kenyan market, but expanded into Tanzania, the Philippines and Mexico in 2017. The series C funding will drive Tala’s expansion into India, where it has already opened offices in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Tala has now raised more than $105m in equity and debt financing altogether, it said. IVP led a $30m series B round for the company in February 2017 that included Ribbit, Lowercase, Data Collective, Collaborative Fund and Female Founders Fund.
Alphabet first invested in Tala through a $1.2m round in 2013 that was led by Lowercase before returning for a $10m series A round two years later. Collaborative Fund led the series A, which also featured Lowercase and Mesa Ventures.