Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, a mobile technology and data science company that is opening up financial access for underserved people globally. Tala’s smartphone app uses alternative data to deliver instant credit and help customers build their financial identities. Tala has disbursed more than $150M in credit throughout East Africa and the Philippines is rapidly expanding throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia. Tala, formerly known as InVenture, is backed by IVP, Ribbit Capital, Lowercase Capital, Data Collective, Collaborative Fund and other leading venture and impact investors. In 2016, Fast Company ranked Tala as one of its top 10 companies in Money, and Forbes named Tala as one of the top 50 FinTech companies in the world. Additionally, Tala’s work has been highlighted by Forbes, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, TED, and Wired, among others. Tala is headquartered in Santa Monica with additional offices in Nairobi and Manila.

Shivani has a wide array of professional experiences in global health, microfinance, and investment banking. Prior to Tala, she worked at the United Nations Population Fund, helping to develop costing models throughout Africa and Asia. She also has experience in investment banking both in mergers & acquisitions at Health Net, Citigroup and Equity Research at UBS. Shivani is an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, a WEF Young Global Leader, Senior TED Fellow and Ashoka Fellow. She is also on the board of Stellar.org. Shivani holds a M.P.H from Columbia University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

Women in Business, Women in Leadership, Innovation, Creativity, Diversity & Race, Science & Technology, Internet & Technology Industries, Technology, Futurists, Information Technology (IT), Poverty Underprivileged Children, Cross-Cultural Understanding, Global Economy, Global Issues,