Kiva Brings Microlending Home To U.S. Entrepreneurs In Need

TECH CRUNCH -- June 10 -- Kiva will launch today with the ability to for anyone to make loans to 45 small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking funding from the areas of New York, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and Miami. In April alone, Kiva members loaned $4.5m to entrepreneurs, a 56% year-over-year increase and a record month for Kiva. Since the microfinance platform’s birth in 2005, over $75m has been loaned through Kiva.org to support more than 180,000 individuals from 44 developing countries. Kiva’s president, Premal Shah, says this new initiative to include U.S. businesses increasingly made sense as the financial markets deteriorated and traditional lending began to dry up even in the U.S. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

 

Mark Brooks: Also see ebay's Microplace.com. They provide returns on investment of up to 6%. So instead of putting a few hundred dollars in to Kiva. Why not put a few grand into Microplace? I put $35k into Microplace so far, that's earning 3-6%.  

 

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