Investments are extensively and differently regulated from one jurisdiction to another. For this reason many microfinance investment opportunities might not be available to everyone. Equally, to many individuals an investment a microfinance fund is neither practical nor interesting for other reasons.
Nevertheless, it is now possible to play a role in the microfinance world starting with an amount as small as $5-$25.
Here is a short list of possibilities of lending money online (lending, not donating), thus contributing to the development of microfinance and micro-entrepreneurs
United Prosperity
Very interesting concept about helping microfinance organisations in India through a guarantee- the can magnify the effect of a loan – vs. the usual direct lending. The platform (and the concept) is very new but promising. I can only recommend it. The no minimum – you can start with as little as 5$ – is ideal to everyone new to microfinance and its social impact.
Kiva .org
This is without doubt one of the best online platform for lending. It is extremely transparent and has gained the support of former US President Bill Clinton and major corporations like Paypal. It is so popular that I even reached the site when there were no more loans to fund
There is an excellent video on CNBC that can give you a very good idea about how this works and how real it is. How it works is actually pretty simple: you can lend any amount – as little as $25 – to selected and real entrepreneurs in a variety of emerging countries like Peru, Kenya and Vietnam. Kiva provides you with full transparent information on both the micro-entrepreneur and the field partner (the microfinance institution that acts as official lender to the borrower). The delinquency rates are extremely low (less than 2%) and, as a not for profit organization, Kiva is making no profit on your money. The local microfinance institution does charge interest and uses the profit to further develop its activities. At the end of a loan you can either cash your money (via Paypal only) OR re-lend it. Even if the majority of lenders are probably not taking any money out, I like the idea of giving you the possibility of doing so.
Babyloan.org
Platform too buggy to be used properly (e.g. several fail errors, link to the lending contract is not working, no contact number for support) I cannot recommend it.
A French based portal. The site is both in English and French but some pages are solely in French. Like Kiva there are no interests paid by the local partner to babyloan but you do need to pay a 1% (1 Euro per 100 Euro loan) to babyloan. The number of loans, field partners and lenders is relatively small but it might have a good potential
Microplace.com
Interesting facts
Additional information
