Shivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala, on raising capital, scaling teams and funding the underserved
Shivani Siroya, CEO of Tala, shares hard-won lessons from building a fintech company that serves underbanked populations across emerging markets. Her contrarian approach to fundraising—prioritizing problem-solution fit over prestigious investor names—offers a refreshing alternative to Silicon Valley's typical playbook for scaling impact-driven businesses.
Key takeaways
- •Focus relentlessly on solving the core problem rather than chasing brand-name investors—results will open the right funding doors naturally.
- •Building for underserved markets requires different metrics and patience than traditional venture-backed scaling models.
- •Team scaling in fintech demands balancing regulatory expertise with rapid growth execution across multiple markets.
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The advice I would give is really to focus on the problem that you're solving and stay focused on that more than staying focused on the name brand of an investor. Because I do think that if you have results, the path kind of starts to open up.
I think the advice I would give is really to focus on the problem that you're solving and stay focused on that more than staying focused on, you know, kind of the name brand of an investor that you're bringing on. Because I do think that if you have results, in some ways, I think the path kind of, you know, starts to open up. Right? And you can go into those meetings with a lot more confidence because you really know what the problem is, you know the solution, and you actually have some data to show that you're on the right track.
“I did this amazing hike that I feel like I need to tell everyone about.”
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