overview

who?

Milaap is an online platform that enables you to lend to India's working poor so they can get access to education, clean water, energy and more. It’s a loan, not a donation. This means you get your full loan amount back once your borrower repays it.

how?

The idea for Milaap was born when Anoj, one of our co-founders, saw what a difference solar lighting made to underprivileged households in Orissa while working at SKS Microfinance. He realised that one of the reasons such products failed to make a bigger impact was because loans for these were unavailable at low interest rates. He teamed up with Sourabh (who having sold the product of his first startup was looking to build a consumer-facing internet startup for social impact) and Mayukh (who was trying to build loan programs for small scale retailers and kirana shop owners selling lighting products in rural Uttar Pradesh) and started Milaap in June 2010.

our philosophy?

A handout is good, a hand-up is even better. 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 borrowers to be judicious and enterprising. Moreover, the same amount that you lend to a borrower can be repeatedly used to fund more borrowers as soon as it is fully repaid. That's how a small amount of money goes a long, long way.

why we're different?

• 1 100% of your money goes to the end-borrower
• 2 Our interest rates are 50% cheaper compared to existing microloans received by our borrowers
• 3 We're the first in the world to enable anyone around the world to lend to India's poor