Facebook’s Crypto Launch Partner Kiva Is Introducing a Refugee Investment Fund

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

By Felix Salmon

One of Facebook’s launch partners in its new cryptocurrency Libra is Kiva, a nonprofit that has married the concept of third-world microloans to first-world crowdfunding.

Catch up quick: Ordinary Americans use Kiva to lend money to some of the poorest people in the world, receiving 0% interest in dollars. The dollars go to microfinance institutions in more than 80 countries, which convert them to local currency and then lend them out to individuals who have to repay the loans with interest.

  • Kiva’s model of giving its investors a 0% return has been reasonably successful: It has lent a total of $1.3 billion over the past decade, with a 97% repayment rate. But when it comes to refugees in particular, the numbers are much lower: Since it started offering loans to refugees in 2016, Kiva has totaled just $12.5 million in loans.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Minishi/European Union.

Source: Axios (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance
Tags
cryptocurrency, impact investing, microfinance, refugees