Their interest rate is exploitative - 15% per month. So if you borrowed $100 at the beginning of the year, you'd need to repay $280 with $180 going to interest alone. This is their policy from their own website https://talasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/3600218533...

No. The 15% is a flat fee. The penalty for late repayment is an additional 8%. It doesn't compound.

I understand that most of successful startups can grow big as they manage to exploit weak human nature, e.g addiction, FOMO, etc. It is used by those giants in SV. However, it is disheartening that they rebranded payday loan as fintech solution. Those in developing countries do not have long history in dealing with high interest pay day loan, unlike many payday shops found in many North America strip malls. It may be their first easy access to money without collaterals.