Quipu
A loan of $50,000 helps provide small loans to over 1,800 Colombian microentrepreneurs, 60% of which are women.
Quipu's story
Quipu is a woman-founded and -owned social enterprise on a mission to empower informal entrepreneurs in Latin America by providing easy and fair access to credit and other financial services. Ninety percent of informal microbusinesses in Latin America don’t have access to formal financial products and services and are often subject to high-interest predatory loans. As a socially responsible digital bank, Quipu intends on closing this financing gap for the millions of microentrepreneurs excluded from formal lending by financial institutions.
Quipu provides credit through a proprietary AI algorithm, building a credit score using alternative data to measure creditworthiness and payment capacity. Through AI and technology, Quipu is eliminating financial barriers for informal microentrepreneurs by offering working capital loans and supply chain financing.
To date, Quipu has served over 23,000 microentrepreneurs, 60% of clients are women.
Kiva’s loan is critical for Quipu to scale financial access for more than 1,800 additional informal small businesses with average loans of USD $55. This is Quipu’s first loan through the Kiva Social Enterprise program.