Kiva Dayton proving to be excellent option for small businesses to raise funds

What is Kiva Dayton?

If you’re familiar with the Dayton startup scene, you’ve probably heard of Kiva Dayton. But, what exactly is Kiva? Well, straight from the website, “Kiva is like crowdfunding, but instead it’s crowdlending – after your loan is repaid, you (the lender) can use the same dollars to support another small business.”

Kiva itself is an international nonprofit originally launched in 2005 in San Francisco with its main focus being to help people out of poverty through entrepreneurship in third-world countries. It wasn’t opened to entrepreneurs in the U.S until 2011. And, it wasn’t until 2017 that Downtown Dayton Partnership’s Start Downtown initiative launched Kiva Dayton.

Kiva provides access to crowd-funded, 0% interest micro-loans ($10,000 and less). What sets Kiva apart from most small business lenders is that you are evaluated not by the flaws of your credit score, but by the strength of your character and the size of your audience. This provides capital for entrepreneurs who have a lot of support from the community but who might not have been eligible for commercial lending because of past hardships. As a lender, you can choose to contribute whatever dollar amount you feel comfortable with, and once the money is repaid, you have a choice to either revolve it (meaning lend it to another small business in need) or withdraw it.

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