Kiva (C)

Kiva is a nonprofit organization founded in late 2004 by two Stanford graduates, Matt Flannery and his wife Jessica Jackley. Inspired by a lecture given by the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Matt and Jessica decided to use their spare time to create a micro-lending organization capable of leveraging the potential of Internet-based technologies. The original idea associated with KIVA's business model is pretty simple: small entrepreneurs in emerging countries find very difficult to get the micro-loans they need to support their entrepreneurial initiatives. Most of them fail due to the impossibility of obtaining financial support. On the other hand, Internet technologies can easily, quickly and efficiently create a link, at virtually zero cost, between these entrepreneurs and small lenders located in richer countries.