Kiva Labs aims to harness power of green crowd-funding with Google backing
Global crowd-funding provider Kiva.org has launched a new initiative, dubbed Kiva Labs, designed to make it easier for environmental and development projects to access crowd funding.
The new initiative, which was launched yesterday, is backed by a $3m Global Impact Award from IT giant Google and is designed to take Kiva.org’s established crowd-funding model and connect it with high impact green and social development projects being pioneered by non-profits and social enterprises that often struggle to gain access to capital.
“Kiva’s crowdfunded loans provide a unique opportunity to increase access to products and services that have a high-potential of success and impact, but are seen as too risky among traditional lenders,” explained Premal Shah, president and co-founder of Kiva. “Through Kiva Labs we can prove what works, share what we learn with a global audience, and ultimately deliver new solutions into the hands of people who need them.”
The non-profit, San Francisco-based organisation claims to have already crowd-funded 132,000 agricultural loans, 4,600 green loans, and 670 mobile tech loans through its network of 230 microloan organisations in over 70 countries, raising $500m while retaining a 99 per cent repayment rate.