Kiva President and Co-Founder, Premal Shah |
About Kiva
Kiva has been empowering small businesses with micro loans since they began in 2005. President and Co-Founder Premal Shah had a mission when establishing the company, "to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty." They are a non-profit organization, so how are they able to do this? By leveraging the Internet and a worldwide network of micro finance institutions.
How it works
Borrowers post their stories on the Kiva web site, describing their business loan need. Lenders can then make loans to the borrower of their choice. Since the company started, they have 1,362,973 Kiva lenders who have made $789,880,550 in loans. Not only that, the repayment rate on the loans is 98.45 percent.
According to an article recently published in Forbes, Kiva's new program for the U.S., called Kiva Zip, provides zero percent loans up to $10,000. Small businesses can qualify for such a loan by first getting 10-to-20 friends or family members to commit $25 each to the funding. The program has been so successful that the company is now ready to launch the program nationwide.
Read more by visiting www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2015/12/09/kiva-to-offer-its-zero-interest-crowdfunded-loans-to-small-businesses-nationwide/