I was reading a good article on livemint.com called “Big Microfinance Firms Taking Over Clients of Smaller Players,” and in it Vikram Akula, the founder and CEO of SKS Microfinance, discusses how smaller MFIs are having a hard time getting funding, so SKS is helping out a lot of their recipients:

“Banks are lending only to large MFIs. We are in a strong position. We are holding discussions with MFIs who are facing strain and helping them by taking over their clients,”

Since there are so many small MFIs out there who are having trouble finding funding, why do MFIs run out of people to loan to?  It has happened multiple times that I have gone to microfinance lending platforms and have not been able to loan money.  If these small MFIs in India are having trouble getting money for their recipients, why don’t they reach out to these organizations?  The article also mentions that there is a demand for 55 billion dollars while India currently only provides about 5 billion in microfinance loans.  If the people are out there, wouldn’t it just be a matter of connecting them to the right organizations?  It seems like there are plenty of lenders ready to donate to individual recipients, but not so many who are willing to donate to MFIs. What if there was a microfinance lending platform that was similar to Kiva and Microplace, but instead of donating money to individual recipients, you could donate to different MFIs?  Lenders could give loans to MFIs, who would in turn give loans to entrepreneurs.  The loans would have to be for a longer term than normal since they would most likely be bigger loans.  The model could be either non-profit or provide a return, depending on the business model, and it could help smaller MFIs who are having a harder time coping with the current economic crisis.  Of course there would be pros and cons to lending platform, but I think that if they were weighed out, the pros would win.

Ever since we have launched mykro.org, I have had a lot of people who were interested in hearing about different lending platforms that are similar to Kiva.  There are a lot of lending platform that give the lender a return on their loan, but I have found very few where you can just lend money to people in need without getting a return.  I recently came across a company that has a great new concept.  United Prosperity, which is set to launch soon, is a person to person loan guaranteeing website.  Rather than providing funding for the full loan of an entrepreneur, the lender only pays enough for the collateral, that way the recipient can get a full loan from a bank or other financial center.  For more information about United Prosperity, take a look at their website, and watch for the launch of their beta version shortly.

It’s no suprise that I am a big fan of microfinance lending platforms.  I have always been a big supporter of Kiva and Microplace, but am always looking for new platforms to join.  Recently, I discussed the launch of a new platform called Veecus, which is a new organization in the microfinance scene.

However, one of the newest platforms out there might not sound so new.  Wokai, who has been working on launching their new platform, has been discussing their journey through their blog.  Recently, Wokai announced that they are launching a pilot version of their lending platform.  With the pilot platform, Wokai is looking for 200 people to test out the site by making $50 in contributions directly to microentrepreneurs in Inner Mongolia, and providing feedback on this process.

Here is a short video clip describing their new platform: