Entrepreneurs in the developing world have already benefited from peer-to-peer lending programs through the likes of Kiva, Wokai and Jolkona. Now aiming to bring similar benefits to students in those areas is Vittana, a Seattle-based foundation that focuses on educational loans.
Now in beta, Vittana partners with microfinance institutions (MFIs) throughout the developing world to catalyze new student lending programs. Potential lenders begin by browsing through the students profiled on the site—current examples include a 19-year-old woman studying industrial administration in Peru, for example, and a 25-year-old man studying financial accounting in Nicaragua. When they see one they'd like to help, they can lend as little as USD 25 toward that student's education. Vittana's local MFI partner—which has already verified that the students listed are hard-working and likely to succeed—then disburses the full amount of that loan to the student. Once the student graduates and gets a job, he or she starts paying back that MFI partner; when the loaned funds are fully repaid, Vittana returns to the lender the full amount that was lent.
We wrote last year about Fynanz and its peer-to-peer student loans, but it's nice to see similar capabilities being brought to students in the developing world. One to partner with, emulate, or otherwise get involved in! (Related: Fighting poverty through microloan guarantees.)
Website: www.vittana.org
Contact: customer-service@vittana.org
Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
The folks at Vittana are awesome people, so congrats to Kushal with the good coverage. I really love how you folks at Springwise always highlight interesting stuff.
Thanks for highlighting our work! We've been busy posting new loans to our site, so if you like what you see, we'd really love for you to do a couple things.
First, find a student and make a loan!
And second, tell your friends! Feel free to Tweet us (@Vittana) and blog us. We're eager to bring in more lenders.
Finally, we'd love to hear what Springwise readers think of our site. We're all-ears for your feedback, so send us an email at the address above.
I like the concept of P2P student loan. It is very much in line to our concept. The difference is we provide loan rather invest with the entrepreneur to setup a franchise business. We are Team India Managers Ltd. and are based in India.
There is also www.educationgeneration.org , a Kiva-like website for financing students in poor countries.