| Website | milaap.org |
| Blog | blog.milaap.org |
| @milaapdotorg | |
| Category | Other |
| Phone | 919448807408 |
| socmed@milaap.org | |
| Employees | 10 |
| Founded | 6/10 |
| Description | Online microlending platform |
| TOTAL | $200k |
| FUNDING TOTAL | $200k |
| Seed, 9/10 Vijay Shekhar Sharma Rajiv Madhok | $75k |
| Seed, 9/10 Spring Singapore First Light Ventures | $125k |
| Seed, 2/12 Unitus Seed Fund |
Milaap is a social enterprise that enables people around the world to give a loan to the working poor in India. Based in Bangalore, India, with its headquarters at Singapore, Milaap is the world’s first and currently, the only online microlending platform that enables non-Indians & non-resident Indians (NRIs) to make a loan to India. Milaap’s loans are aimed towards providing people with access to basic essentials like clean drinking water, sanitation, renewable energy, vocational training with guaranteed jobs, apart from enterprise development.
Microcredit, traditionally aimed at entrepreneurs, tends to have high interest rates because Microfinance institutions (MFIs) that fund these loans borrow from banks at high interest rates. Besides, loans for basic necessities like sanitation, drinking water and vocational training are not easily available as they need to be at low interest rates. By sourcing funds from individuals all over the world, Milaap has been able to eliminate the need for their partners MFIs to borrow from banks. Thus, the end-borrowers get to avail low-cost loans.
Milaap and its field partners (NGOs and MFIs) facilitate and disburse the loans from online lenders to the borrowers. The loans are given out to borrowers at interest rates of 12-18%(50% lower than existing interest rates available to microcredit borrowers.) After the loan has been repaid, it will be returned to lenders as Milaap credits which they can either withdraw or re-lend to other borrowers. As of November 2011, working with five field partners, Milaap has raised USD $170,000 in loans.
A short video on what Milaap.org is all about.
Added: 12/7/11
