Kiva

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Model & Strategy

As the world’s first person-to-person lending marketplace for the poor, Kiva’s vision is to create a world where all people – even in the most remote areas of the globe – hold the power to create an opportunity for themselves and others. Kiva’s goal is to reduce global poverty by creating a platform where internet users can lend to and connect with a specific developing world entrepreneur online. Affordable capital helps low income entrepreneurs start or expand small businesses, creating a path towards economic self-sufficiency. Kiva enables a new channel for the delivery of such funds and creates equitable partnership relationships in the process.

At a Glance
Founded: 2005
Co-Founder: Premal Shah
Co-Founder: Matt Flannery
Economic Empowerment
Location of work: Domestic, International, Africa, Asia, Latin America
http://www.kiva.org
Kiva
875 Howard Street
Suite 340
San Francisco, CA 94103
Connect people through lending to alleviate poverty
Meet Premal Shah

Premal first began dreaming of “internet microfinance” while working at PayPal, the online payments company. In late 2004, Premal took a 3 month leave from PayPal to develop and test the internet microfinance concept in India. When he returned to Silicon Valley, he met other like-minded dreamers and quit his job at PayPal to help bring the Kiva concept to life and eventually to scale. Kiva today raises over $1 million each week for the working poor in 50+ countries and was named a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine in 2009. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” list in 2009. Premal began his career as a management consultant and graduated from Stanford University.

Matt began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side-project while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc.  Matt helped to lead Kiva’s growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and hundreds of millions in dollars loaned to low-income entrepreneurs. Matt is Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow and was selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” list in 2009.  In 2011, Matt was chosen for the The Economist “No Boundaries” Innovation Award.

Neville Crawley has been the CEO of Kiva since 2019.  Neville brings nearly 2 decades of experience in global business and technology ventures, most recently as CEO of Quid, a platform that analyzes the world’s collective intelligence to help answer strategic questions.

IMPACT

To date, Kiva has facilitated over $1 billion in loans to 2.6 million micro-entrepreneurs across 83 countries. The repayment rate is 96%, and the average loan size is $700.

Increase capital access to underfunded, market based, evidenced backed anti-poverty approaches: Kiva’s crowdfunding model creates a unique form of low-cost, risk-tolerant capital to help frontline innovators expand (e.g. One Acre Fund, myAgro, Komaza, etc).

Increase public awareness & engagement: Kiva seeks to create deeper public engagement in the pressing — and addressable — issues of our time. >1 million citizen lenders have participated, including programs at over 3,000 schools & universities.

Kiva News

All News

Learn More

  • RT @EbyChrissy: @MrsMitchellMath and our @LipscombAcademy 8th graders have been hard at work this week! They made items in our iWonder lab…
  • RT @shaboom: My 20 year old grandson told me he doesn’t really want/need anything for Christmas I’m giving him a Kiva gift card. 🔥 https://…
  • Loving this article from JoAnna Haugen! "#GivingTuesday and Beyond: Why Communities Matter in Altruism" https://t.co/6WGLpWCDEr
  • Meet our borrower Ayaovi, from Togo! ✨ He's an entrepreneur who started his own fish business, and pays for all of… https://t.co/IrI55GUGQr
  • RT @VotrubaT: I think we, developers are very privileged. Not everyone in the world is that lucky. To remind this myself, for 2 years now…
  • RT @IdahoLark: Here's a cool gift idea. Give someone a gift card to make a microloan to a person or group in another country of their choic…
  • RT @tzale7: Thanks @Groupon & @Kiva for the opportunity to support entrepreneurs around the world #GivingTuesday (Thursday) #TeamGroupon #G…
  • RT @OzarksatLarge: A partnership between @startup_junkie and @WaltonFamilyFdn has resulted in the launch of a @Kiva hub https://t.co/jG5RRR…
  • RT @sarah_adeel: The @Kiva US Hub product allows your organization to launch its own micro-loan program. Excited about the partnership with…
  • Meeting our Field Partners and borrowers around the world is such an incredible part of our job, and supporting the… https://t.co/Mk9x9HmZPl
  • Love this, @shlokes! Kiva Cards are an amazing way to get all your loved ones involved in lending across the world… https://t.co/VtxmqFX5Gq
  • RT @KzooLISC: We are really excited about our continued partnership with @Kiva! This year across the country, LISC has co-invested over $40…
  • RT @ArcadiaSch: Our Year 7 students entered the world of micro-financing! As part of our CEL programme, the students organized a KIVA Mark…
  • RT @startupswb_com: “Banks see refugees as risk. But @Kiva’s studies show that the repayment rate of refugees is of 96 percent.” Listen t…
  • RT @StuFrugal: @kiva loans is a great way to give many times over. https://t.co/OhfL70lIog
  • “I gave two last Christmas!” 🎄 Kiva Cards are an amazing gift for anyone in your life this holiday season! When you… https://t.co/fbKFPl0QcB
  • RT @avanem: Last week we did our 200th @Kiva loan. We have been relending the same 500$ for 8 years now - in batches of 25$/50$ (resulting…
  • RT @startupswb_com: "There are more than 1.7 million people who don't have bank accounts around the world. Many of them have great ideas fo…
  • RT @nevillecrawley: Meet Tabitha Shikuku, one of @Kiva’s four inspiring @atlascorps Fellows! Check out the blog post below, written by anot…
  • RT @SumSums: Yesterday in honor of #GivingTuesday2019 @Groupon’s Rich Williams donated $50,000(usd) to @Kiva! Allowing us employees to all…