NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, March 21, 2014

On January 14, eBay ended its brief flirtation with impact investing.

The internet giant had acquired a small startup called MicroPlace in 2006, thus becoming a major player in the emerging market of small-scale lending.

With the online auctioneer’s global reach, company executives believed they could close the poverty gap by enabling the average American to lend small amounts ($50 to $100) to enterprises in the developing world at a 1 to 4 percent return.