Milaap is proud to announce that it has recently become the world’s first online microlending platform to enable anyone around the world to play a part in the social development of India. The Milaap team worked with the regulatory body in India for more than a year to ensure that the working poor in India can receive low-cost loans from international as well as domestic lenders. The company was started by a team of graduates from National University of Singapore with a grant from NUS Enterprise. It is currently backed by Spring Singapore.

The CEO of Milaap, Mr. Sourabh Sharma says, “The poor in India end up paying very high interest when they borrow money from microfinace companies because they in turn borrow from banks at commercial rates. Milaap's ability to allow socially conscious individuals around the world to lend to the poor drastically reduces the interest rate paid by them.”

With the Milaap model, everyday individuals can lend as little as Rs. 1,000 or USD $50  to borrowers. The loans will go towards key areas such as sanitation, vocational training and drinking water. The model differs from traditional charity donation as lenders receive full repayment in the stipulated time period. They can also deploy the same loan amount repeatedly for maximum impact.

While there are other international players such as Kiva and Vittana who follow similar crowd-sourcing models, Milaap holds the unique advantage of sourcing capital for India’s poor from both foreign and domestic lenders. This opens up a whole new segment of people who can pave the way for bringing essential services to the 700 million who live on USD $2 a day.

Milaap was founded in 2010 by a team of young and passionate entrepreneurs who are alumni of NUS Singapore. Its online microlending platform enables anyone around the world to lend money to the working poor in India at very low interest rates. The process is simple. Choose a borrower. Make a loan. Get repaid. Recycle. So far, it has raised USD$140,000 for borrowers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra with 100% repayment rate till date.