In photo: TALA’s new General Manager, Donald Evangelista, brings his expertise in data-driven innovation, business strategy, and digital transformation to the company’s mission of bringing financial freedom and inclusivity to more underbanked Filipinos. TALA aims to revolutionize the Philippine lending space by building a holistic financial ecosystem that puts more power in the customer’s hands.
Global fintech platform TALA welcomes its new General Manager Donald Evangelista whose expertise in data-driven innovation, business strategy, and digital transformation will be integral to the company’s mission of bringing financial freedom and inclusivity to more Filipinos, specifically the underbanked
Evangelista’s significant experience and accomplishments in the fields of Data Science, Customer Intelligence, Information Management, and Big Data have placed him at an opportune time to explore and expand the 1.8-million-strong (and rising) Filipino borrowers who have been using TALA’s accessible, safe, and flexible financing services.
With more than seven years of experience accelerating financial agency for the globally underbanked, TALA has given credit access to more than 6 million people worldwide with over $2.7 billion in credit. The company’s pioneering use of alternative data, which recognizes the creditworthiness of a borrower in a way that traditional lending does or cannot, has resulted in a 90%+ global repayment rate. TALA’s 95% repeat customer rate solidly affirms the trust and value customers see with its long relationship with TALA beyond the first loan.
One innovation that is breaking ground in the lending sector is TALA Loans Your Way, designed to respond to the unique financial obstacles that Filipino borrowers regularly encounter. TALA app users can experience flexibility when it comes to the terms of their loans. They can choose their loan due date according to their next payday cycle or other financial obligations, allowing them to repay with ease and confidence. The punctual payment of loans also increases a TALA app user’s credit score, allowing them to reapply for bigger loan amounts.
Evangelista gives an example, “The typical TALA customer is a working mom who’s using credit to pay for household goods for her family or to support a small side hustle. Under typical loan products which have a fixed term, her repayment date would have fallen at an inconvenient time like in-between paychecks. Now with TALA, she can align her loan repayment at a more suitable time that works best for her.”
Prior to assuming TALA’s General Manager post, Evangelista was part of the APAC leadership team for Bain & Company, a premier global management consulting firm where he advised top financial services firms in Asia and ANZ regions. As a leader in Bain’s Advanced Analytics Group practice, he architected solutions to harness data science as a C-level agenda for competitive advantage. Prior to that, he was Country Managing Director for Nordic consulting services firms QVARTZ Analytics & BusinessMinds where he managed the data and analytics business portfolio, operations and service delivery teams for Manila and the offshore markets of Denmark, Australia and Singapore.
As its General Manager, Evangelista revealed TALA’s future plans for expansion: “We’re excited and anticipating the explosion of blockchain and crypto to provide the backbone of our infrastructure that can further elevate our mission of financial inclusion. We foresee this as an enabler for Tala to provide more financial services to our existing customers at lower fees with higher returns for them. We’re taking the expertise we’ve built through the years to offer more products and services to more underbanked customers in our current and future markets.”
TALA operates in Kenya, India, Mexico, and the Philippines, countries selected for the company’s unique brand of service thanks to their strong smartphone penetration, and the emerging middle class and underbanked customer’s demand for more efficient and accessible financial services.
“Our mission is to empower the financially underserved using proprietary technologies and machine learning algorithms that encourage responsible borrowing while preventing over-indebtedness by enabling financial literacy,” Evangelista said. “TALA is revolutionizing the lending space by putting more power in the customer’s hands, while building a holistic financial ecosystem for the underserved communities.”