Microfinance Focus, April 14, 2011: KIVA, a US-based not-for-profit company has explored the potential of internet to connect retail investors to microfinance borrowers and entrepreneurs across the world. This idea inspired many such initiatives across the globe -- MYC4 in Africa, Micro-Place an E-bay venture, Rang De in India have all made the idea a successful turn. Most of these online market places provide web platform to connect investors and entrepreneurs. Usually they put the profiles of micro–entrepreneurs, details of their current business activity and provide a choice to investors to select the entrepreneur. Investors can invest as low as $ 20. These platforms also provide a choice to be just a social investor as KIVA does. It does not yield any returns to investors. But MICRO PLACE and MYC4 offer some return to the investors who use their platform.

The space provided here offers an opportunity to indulge into direct lending with borrowers located in any part of the world. Here’s your chance to do your bit as a lender and connect with individuals in your drive to alleviate poverty.

Here is a list of the Peer to Peer lending website you can visit:

1. Kiva.org

Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. It envisions a world where all people - even in the most remote areas of the globe - hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others.

Visit: http://www.kiva.org

2. MicroPlace

MicroPlace in 2007, is a website that enables everyday people to invest in the world’s working poor. As an online investment marketplace whose mission it is to alleviate global poverty, MicroPlace is a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay Inc.
Visit : www.microplace.com 

3. Veecus

After gaining experience in microfinance, banking and marketing, Veecus also allows its users to participate in the adventure microfinance is growing in most developing countries, and also in France!

Veecus microfinance network is a peer-to-peer (between individuals). Its purpose is to allow both; micro entrepreneurs around the world to access funds to develop their projects and lenders to invest in projects of their choice in order to effectively participate in local projects around the world.

Visit: http://www.veecus.com/

4. MYC4

MYC4 is an online marketplace that connects you directly with African entrepreneurs, who lack capital to develop their businesses. MYC4 sees huge business potential in Africa waiting to be triggered.

Visit: http://www.myc4.com/

5. Good Return

Good Return is an innovative social enterprise established by World Education Australia to address poverty issues in the Asia Pacific region.

Visit: http://www.goodreturn.org

6. Xetic.org

Xetic offers a chance to participate by lending small sums of money to micro-entrepreneurs to the other end of the world who want to develop an income generating activity but have no access to traditional banking system to meet their financing needs.

Visit: http://en.xetic.org/

7. 51Give

51Give was founded in 2007 and headquartered in Beijing, China. It aims to provide a convenient and transparent website which will directly link borrowers and lenders, through the provision of Microfinance-on-demand (demand for micro-credit system) solutions for carbon-friendly micro-credit development in China. 51Give platform is divided into two parts: rural micro-credit and student credit.

Visit: http://www.51give.com

8. MyELEN.com

Project myELEN.com - Electronic Loan Exchange Network (an electronic exchange loans) - opens a new European capital investment alternative. Anybody can finance through the portal myELEN.com selected borrower, the whole group or a microfinance institution that provides loans - principal and get back with a fixed interest rate.

Visit: http://www.myelen.com

9. Rang De

Rang De was founded in the year 2006 . Rang De was started with the belief that peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities.

Visit: http://www.rangde.org

10. Babyloan

Babyloan.org is a French Website that allows you to help by lending rather than giving. Through babyloan.org, you can support micro-entrepreneurs that lack access to capital to launch or expand business activities.

Visit: http://www.babyloan.org

11. Wokai

Wokai was founded in the year 2007. Utilizing the principle of microfinance, Wokai connects retial investors  to people in rural China who want to start small businesses, but just need a little help getting there.

Visit: http://www.wokai.org

12. DHANAX

"dhanaX is an online-offline person-to-person lending platform that allows Indians to lend and borrow money from each other". dhanaX works within the ambit of Social Business or Social Enterprise. Successful experiments worldwide in micro-credit have shown how low income people can also aspire for financial and social advancement.

Visit: https://www.dhanax.com

13. p2p Microfinance

p2p Microfinance is a web based microfinance facilitator that aims to extend credit to poor entrepreneurs at low interest rates. This will be done through an innovative risk guarantee scheme whereby commercial lenders will feel comfortable lending to the poor.It envisages a web based technology platform to connect the poor, commercial lines of credit and the people who can afford to take guarantee to a small portion of the money.

Visit : http://www.p2pmicrofin.org/About.aspx

Few More [ Based on Reader`s email and feedback ]

Zidisha Microfinance

Zidisha.org is the US-based nonprofit links lenders worldwide directly with computer-using borrowers in low-income countries. What makes Zidisha Microfinance unique is that the borrowers themselves post their loan applications and communicate directly with lenders. Lenders may earn interest on their loans, and borrower credit risk is evaluated on the basis of third-party background checks and a user-generated feedback rating system on the Zidisha.org web platform.  Zidisha Microfinance does not outsource loan management to local organizations, and by eliminating these intermediaries brings the costs of its loans to borrowers far below the rates charged by traditional microfinance service providers.

Visit : www.Zidisha.org

Inuka

Inuka is the realization of a vision by the Founder, Kanini Mutooni, herself an African female with a passion for the African continent.  She is also the founder of myAzimia.org which is a software company that provides a technology platform for the crowd-funding, Peer-to-Peer lending and microfinance sectors.

Visit: http://www.inuka.org/about

Disclaimer: This article may not include a complete list of all such websites. If we left out such peer to peer lending website, write to us (news@microfinancefocus.com), we will include such websites in this list.