Milaap is an online platform that enables you to lend to India's working poor so they can get access to education, clean water, sanitation, energy and more.

We believe that while a handout is good, a hand-up is even better. That is why we ask you to make a loan and not a donation. While donations in the form of charity can create great impact, they have a relatively short life-span.

By giving someone a loan, you’re giving them a hand up. You're encouraging them to be responsible and enterprising with the money. Once the borrower repays it at the end of the term, you get your money back in full.

What's best is that the same amount you lend to one borrower can repeatedly be used to fund more borrowers once it is fully repaid. That way, a small amount of money goes a long, long way.

Milaap’s loans target specific, essential services that have long term impact such as vocational training and higher education, affordable energy, clean water, safe sanitation and MSME development at rates 50% cheaper than existing forms of credit available to the in India poor.

Problem

More than 80% of Indians live below $2 a day. One in two Indians do not have access to clean water. Over 600 million Indians cannot relieve themselves in private, and approximately 40% of students in India drop out by secondary school. To make matters worse, access to capital is also limited for these people, yet they need this capital to be able to lift themselves out of poverty. It is expensive for banks to provide small loans to people whose income is uncertain, and this leads to interest rates being very high, and unaffordable. As a result, most of the interventions to improve the well-being of those living in these conditions tend to be charity or grant driven, but even this creates the problem of accountability, since some people end up misusing the money. It also kills the spirit of enterprise in them. There is a need for a solution that is affordable, that creates a sense of accountability and entrepreneurship in them, and most importantly, that still manages to improve their well-being and economic situation.

Solution

Milaap is a social enterprise that enables anyone around the world to make loans to India's working poor, most of whom earn below $2 a day. We believe in loans, and not donations, as they encourage entrepreneurship and Our loans focus on providing people with access to basic amenities such as clean drinking water, sanitation, vocational training with guaranteed jobs at the end of the training, and enterprise development. Our idea is to connect people in need with other people around the world who are looking to do good. To date, we have disbursed over Rs. 15,000,000 in loans, and have impacted over 7,000 lives. Our loans have enabled over 100 artisans set up and expand their small manufacturing businesses, trained over 200 youth and gotten them job placements, given access to solar lighting to over 100 families and constructed over 500 water connections and toilets across India.

Exemple

Our model is a peer to peer lending model, where anyone, regardless of their location, can make a loan to any of the borrowers on our platform, www.milaap.org. We work with field partners, who are typically NGOs and Microfinance Institutions at the grassroots who help us identify and appraise borrowers in people in need of loans, Once they meet the criteria, they become featured borrowers on our website. We then raise low cost debt (at 0%) from social investors around the world, as well as high net-worth individuals and companies looking to give back to society. This credit is at least 50% cheaper than existing sources of credit affordable to the working poor. Our field partners then disburse the loans raised and monitor the usage of the money and its repayment. Once the borrower repays the loan, the lender gets 100% of his/her money back and can either cash it out or make another loan using the same money. One of our success stories is that of Parameswaran, who had to carry his disabled daughter each day to the fields so that she could relieve herself. His life changed when he took a Rs. 10,000 loan from Milaap to construct a toilet at his home, and he no longer has to walk many kilometres each day to take his daughter to relieve herself.

Marché

There are only a handful on online microlending sites, major ones being Kiva.org, Vittana.org and RangDe.org Milaap.org is relatively young in comparison to these sites, however, we are the only ones approved by the Reserve Bank of India (India's Central Bank) to enable anyone around the world to lend to India's poor. While both Kiva.org and Vittana.org are unable to lend to India, Rangde.org - being an Indian organization - can lend to India but is not able to raise loans from non-Indians or even Indians outside India. Secondly, our focus on education, water, sanitation and other basic amenities is unique and different from the other lending sites which are doing traditional microfinance loans.