# Kiva Kiva is an other based in San Francisco, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** other - **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** San Francisco, CA, United States - **Founded:** 2005 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** kiva.org - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/kiva ## Regulatory record - **CRD number:** 310970 - **Registration status:** Registered - **Reports private funds:** Yes - **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/310970 ## About Kiva is an international nonprofit that expands financial access to help underserved communities thrive. By connecting people through crowdfunded loans, it puts the power of financial inclusion in people's hands. There are over a billion unbanked people around the world. Lenders can lend as little as $25. ## Sectors - Financial Inclusion - Microfinance ## Offices - London, United Kingdom - Austin, TX, United States ## Questions ### How does Kiva's repayment-driven capital cycle work? When a lender contributes $25 to a borrower's loan, that capital is not a donation but a zero-interest loan that the borrower repays over a set term. As repayments flow back into the lender's Kiva account, the lender can withdraw the funds or redeploy them into new loans. This recycling architecture means a single dollar can fund multiple borrowers over time, multiplying impact without requiring additional contributions. The repayment rate across Kiva's portfolio has historically run above 95%. ### How is Kiva Capital Management related to Kiva's core platform? Kiva Capital Management is a separate subsidiary designed to attract larger, accredited institutional capital into impact-first funds. While kiva.org connects individual lenders directly to borrowers, Kiva Capital Management pools institutional capital into funds targeting specific sectors such as off-grid clean energy or smallholder agriculture. The subsidiary maintains its own governance and investment committees, firewalled from the core platform's individual lending operations. ### Does Kiva operate as a nonprofit or a for-profit entity? Kiva is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, meaning all contributions to the platform are tax-deductible for U.S. donors and operating overhead is funded separately through optional lender donations and grants. The core lending flow passes 100% of contributed dollars through to borrowers. Kiva's nonprofit status distinguishes it from for-profit fintech lenders by removing equity-return pressure from the capital allocation equation. ### Which geographies receive the bulk of Kiva's lending? Kiva operates in more than 80 countries, with the densest activity concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Within the United States, Kiva extends zero-interest loans to small business owners and entrepreneurs from marginalized communities who face barriers to traditional bank credit. The platform's field-partner network gives it origination depth in regions where conventional microfinance and banking infrastructure is thinnest. ### How does Kiva protect against borrower default and currency risk? Underwriting and default risk sit primarily with Kiva's in-country Lending Partners, which screen borrowers, set interest rates, and manage collections. Currency risk falls on the Lending Partner as well; Kiva disburses US dollars to the partner, and the partner repays Kiva in US dollars, absorbing any local-currency depreciation. Lender funds on kiva.org carry no principal protection, though the platform's historical repayment rate exceeds 95%. ### What is Kiva's known posture on co-investments alongside external development-finance institutions? Through Kiva Capital Management, the organization has co-invested with public and private development-finance institutions in blended-finance structures targeting underserved sectors. These vehicles often pair philanthropic first-loss capital with commercial institutional dollars to unlock lending in segments—such as smallholder agriculture in climate-vulnerable regions—where standalone commercial capital cannot price the risk. Kiva does not syndicate individual platform loans with outside co-investors; that activity remains within the institutional subsidiary. ## Related profiles - [Truewind](https://altss.com/profile/truewind) - [Ozone API](https://altss.com/profile/ozone-api) --- Last updated: 2026-08-11T15:07:12.582Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/kiva Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology