Product Keynote: Tala

A fintech company that has already disbursed $7 billion in unsecured loans to unbanked populations across six countries is now bringing its entire operation on-chain through a landmark partnership with Solana and Huma Finance—potentially revolutionizing how billions of people in emerging markets access credit and build financial identities.

Summary

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Tala, a decade-old financial technology company, announced at Breakpoint 2025 that it is migrating its lending platform to Solana, marking one of the most significant real-world adoption stories for blockchain technology in the financial inclusion space. The company, led by Chief Product Officer Nicholas Cabrera, has spent ten years building proprietary underwriting systems that allow them to extend credit to people who have been systematically excluded from traditional banking systems—those without credit scores, bank accounts, or structured financial histories.

The announcement represents a paradigm shift in how crypto infrastructure can serve populations that need financial services most. By tokenizing loans and disbursing them in USDC, Tala aims to unlock more efficient capital markets while simultaneously creating persistent on-chain identities for customers who have never had formal financial records. This isn't just about moving money faster—it's about creating a permanent, portable financial identity for people who could carry their creditworthiness with them for the first time in their lives.

The partnership establishes a $15 million initial global debt facility, with plans to scale significantly as the infrastructure matures. Tala's existing customer base of 13 million users across Mexico, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and India will gain access to USDC-denominated loans, with the company also exploring local stablecoin options to meet specific market needs.

Key Points:

Bringing Unsecured Lending to the Unbanked On-Chain

Tala's core business addresses one of the world's most persistent financial challenges: how do you extend credit to people who have no credit history? Traditional banks require extensive documentation and credit scores—assets that roughly 4 billion people in the global majority simply don't have. Tala solved this problem by developing proprietary data collection and underwriting systems that analyze alternative data points from users' devices and behaviors to assess creditworthiness.

This approach has already proven successful at massive scale, with $7 billion disbursed across six markets. By moving this proven system on-chain, Tala can now tokenize individual loans or loan pools, exposing them to both retail and institutional traders. This creates new liquidity sources that could further reduce the cost of capital for underserved borrowers while giving investors access to a previously inaccessible asset class with a decade of performance history.

Creating Digital Financial Identity for the Global Majority

Perhaps the most transformative aspect of Tala's blockchain migration is the creation of on-chain identities for users who have never had formal financial records. For the first time, customers in emerging markets will be able to build a portable credit history that travels with them—not locked into a single lender's database or lost when they move between countries.

This identity layer enables what Cabrera described as a cascade of new services. Once a user has an established on-chain identity with credit history, they become accessible to the broader DeFi ecosystem. Other protocols and services can build on this foundation, extending financial services to people who were previously invisible to the financial system. It transforms a one-time loan into a gateway to an entire world of financial products.

End-to-End On-Chain Lending Infrastructure

Tala's platform is designed as a modular, plug-and-play system that handles every aspect of the lending lifecycle. From capital raising on traditional markets to data collection, underwriting, loan disbursement, and the critical on/off-ramps that convert stablecoins to local currency for everyday use, the entire stack is now moving to Solana.

The off-ramping capability is particularly crucial for Tala's customers, who need their loan proceeds in spendable local currency. Unlike crypto-native users who might be comfortable holding stablecoins, Tala's customers typically need immediate access to cash for business inventory, medical expenses, or other pressing needs. The partnership ensures that the efficiency gains of on-chain settlement don't come at the cost of usability.

Partnership Model and Ecosystem Integration

Tala is positioning itself as both a direct lender and an infrastructure provider for the broader Solana ecosystem. Partners can tap into Tala's underwriting capabilities and customer base of 13 million users to offer their own lending products to emerging market customers. This B2B2C model could significantly accelerate adoption by allowing other protocols to focus on their core products while Tala handles the complex regulatory and operational challenges of serving unbanked populations.

The company is actively seeking partners who can provide new forms of liquidity or who want to expose their services to Tala's customer base. This open approach suggests Tala sees its role as building core infrastructure rather than capturing the entire value chain—a strategy that could lead to rapid ecosystem growth around emerging market financial services.

Facts + Figures

• Tala has disbursed approximately $7 billion in unsecured loans over 10 years of operation
• The company serves 13 million customers across six markets including Mexico, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and India
• An estimated 4 billion people in the global majority lack access to traditional credit systems
• The partnership establishes a $15 million global debt facility denominated in USDC
• Loans will be originated on-chain with disbursements made in USDC
• The migration brings 10 years of customer history and performance data on-chain
• Tala is partnering with both Solana and Huma Finance for the blockchain implementation
• The company developed proprietary underwriting technology to assess creditworthiness without traditional credit scores
• Future plans include potential disbursements in local stablecoins alongside USDC
• Individual loans or loan pools will be tokenized and exposed to retail and institutional traders

Top Quotes

"Often what's missing in this mission of democratizing finance is the true connections and the engagement with people that need it the most."

"Those users don't have a credit score. And that's what Tala has been doing in providing unsecured lending credit solutions to those people that they need the most."

"We bring a ton of history and unique data sets by those customers that most of us here try to connect and evolve their access."

"For the first time, we're going to create a unique identity on-chain to the global majority customers that will be able to carry that with them for the first time and then be served in new ways."

"More than just money movement, we're bringing identity and lending on-chain to all of our customers."

"We estimate it's about 4 billion customers of the global majority and bringing that on-chain."

Questions Answered

What is Tala and what problem does it solve?

Tala is a ten-year-old financial technology company that provides unsecured loans to people in emerging markets who lack access to traditional banking services. The company operates in six markets across Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and India, serving customers who don't have credit scores or formal banking relationships. Tala developed proprietary underwriting technology that collects and analyzes alternative data from users to assess creditworthiness, enabling them to extend credit to populations that traditional banks simply won't serve. This approach has allowed them to disburse approximately $7 billion in loans to 13 million customers.

Why is Tala moving to blockchain technology?

Tala is migrating to Solana to gain the efficiency benefits of on-chain finance while also creating new opportunities for their customers. By tokenizing loans, they can access more efficient capital markets and expose their loan portfolio to a broader range of retail and institutional investors. However, the most transformative benefit is the creation of on-chain identities for their customers—people who have never had formal financial records will now have portable, permanent credit histories. This opens doors to additional financial services from across the crypto ecosystem.

How will Tala's blockchain integration work in practice?

Tala is establishing a $15 million global debt facility in USDC through partnerships with Solana and Huma Finance. Loans will be originated on-chain and disbursed in USDC, with the option for local stablecoin disbursements in the future. The company's entire lending infrastructure—from capital raising to underwriting, disbursement, and off-ramping—is being moved on-chain. Individual loans or pools of loans will be tokenized, allowing them to be traded and providing liquidity to investors interested in emerging market credit.

What does this mean for Tala's existing customers?

Tala's 13 million customers will gain access to USDC-denominated loans with the added benefit of building an on-chain identity. For many of these customers, this represents their first opportunity to create a portable financial record that can travel with them and be recognized by other services. The off-ramping capabilities ensure customers can still convert their loan proceeds to local currency for everyday use, so the blockchain infrastructure doesn't create barriers to accessing funds when they're needed.

How can other projects partner with Tala?

Tala is actively seeking partners in several categories. Projects can provide new forms of liquidity to fund loan origination, or they can expose their own services to Tala's 13 million customer base. The company's underwriting infrastructure is designed as plug-and-play, meaning other protocols could potentially leverage Tala's credit assessment capabilities to offer their own lending products to emerging market customers. This opens significant opportunities for DeFi protocols looking to expand beyond crypto-native users into real-world populations with demonstrated demand for financial services.