Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO, Tala./FILE
Financial
infrastructure firm, Tala, has launched a tokenized lending platform to cater
to borrowers without a banking history in the world.
It plans to deploy $50 million credit facility via the platform in USDC to
power blockchain-enabled, permission-less lending for millions of global
customers.
The
Artificial Intelligence (AI) underwritten consumer lending tool, in partnership with Huma Finance, is the first of its kind in Kenya and is powered by Solana
and supported by USDC liquidity facilitated by the Huma Protocol
For
billions of consumers who lack access to traditional banking services and
credit history systems, tokenized lending offers faster and more reliable
access to credit, better rates through a global capital network, and a
portable, digital reputation that enables broader participation in the global
economy.
Tala’s
existing customer base of nearly 13 million across multiple emerging markets
creates immediate scale for blockchain adoption.
“After
a decade operating across multiple emerging markets, we know how to translate
frontier technologies into real-world financial power,” said Shivani
Siroya, founder and CEO, Tala.
“By
pairing Tala’s trusted platform with the power of blockchain technology,
together with Huma and Solana, we can expand financial access, eliminate
systemic inefficiencies, and help millions become active participants in the
global digital economy.”
The
solution is powered by Tala’s proprietary credit engine, which has been trained
on $7 billion in lending performance data across multiple continents.
That
dataset—largely invisible to banks and most AI systems—gives Tala the ability
to evaluate borrowers who have historically been overlooked by the global
financial system.
By
tokenizing these loans in an overcollateralized lending facility and connecting
them to Huma’s liquidity pools, Tala unlocks a new funding mechanism for
emerging market credit, bringing global capital directly to high-demand markets transparently and efficiently.
Speaking
during the launch, Erbil Karaman, Co-Founder of Huma Finance, said that Tala’s
team has over a decade of experience in scaling high-performance lending
programmes while providing financial access to tens of millions of people who
need it the most.
“Unlike
past attempts in the industry, this partnership sets a new standard for
overcollateralized, data-driven, fully-digital, tokenized lending that is
liquid from day one. Together we are delivering on the promise of crypto
– an open and efficient global financial system for all.”
Huma
Finance specializes in compliant, transparent, on-chain payment finance
infrastructure, connecting high-performance digital assets to more than 100,000
liquidity providers globally.
Its
stable-coin-based payments finance protocol offers programmable lending and
repayment rails, risk controls, and real-time portfolio visibility.
The
collaboration with Tala will tokenize loan assets and move key processes such
as disbursement and repayment on-chain for transparency, lower costs, and global
liquidity access.
The
launch establishes Tala as one of the largest global on-ramps for
non-crypto-native users in emerging markets, instantly introducing millions of
new consumers to the global blockchain ecosystem through everyday financial
activity.
For
liquidity providers, tokenized lending introduces a new class of real-world
assets backed by real repayment behavior, verified on-chain.
Tokenization
also allows lenders to sell tokens that represent future cash flows,
fractionalize risk to reach more investors, and automate key processes through
smart contracts, improving transparency, efficiency, and balance sheet
management.
Maya
Caddle, Payments Lead at Solana Foundation, said that the firm’s vision for
internet capital markets is to make finance accessible globally and at scale.
“Tala’s decision to bring its credit and
payments products to Solana shows how on-chain markets can expand access to
financial services in emerging markets.”
The
company’s on-chain lending model will extend to other networks next year,
creating an even broader scale for cross-border transactions and stable-coin use
cases.