Nearly everyone told Matt and Jessica Flannery that their idea -- a website where people could make micro loans to individual borrowers in the developing world -- wouldn’t work. Venture capitalists couldn’t see how anyone could make big money on tiny loans. Foundations wouldn’t support something that they saw as commerce not charity. But the Flannerys persisted and today the website that they created -- Kiva.org -- has so far assisted about 40 000 borrowers in 40 countries and provided a total of $27 million in funding. Matt Flannery Kiva’s CEO and Premal Shah its president spoke about their business at the recent University of Pennsylvania Microfinance Conference.

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