Ready for even more exciting news? We’re ecstatic to announce that Kiva.org is our corporate sponsor for the Blaze Virtual Summit | Summer 2022.

Kiva is  a 501 non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and it is the world’s first online lending platform connecting online lenders to entrepreneurs across the globe. 

“1.7 billion adults are unbanked — they can’t benefit from conventional credit and capital or even save earned money efficiently,” says Kiva leadership. “We’re working to improve the underlying circumstances that cause the need for microloans in the first place with Kiva Capital.”

Kiva’s stated mission is “to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive.” BLAZE GROUP can attest that Kiva has been effective in doing just that.

“In Q1 alone, Kiva bridged Black female entrepreneurs from the Blaze community to $16,000 in 0%, zero-fee loans,” exclaimed BLAZE Founder Casey Ariel Richardson. “Our partnership with Kiva.org over the last year has been our most impactful one to date. I can’t thank them enough for such an innovative, inclusive solution to helping Black women overcome the funding gap exists today.” 

According to Crunchbase, as of July 2021, Black female startup founders had only received 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the U.S.

Lamont Young, head of digital and customer experience at Citizens Bank, told CNBC: “The types of questions that founders of color are asked by financiers tend to be slightly different. There’s a little bit more scrutiny… a little bit more skepticism. Whether it’s on the product or the market opportunity, there’s definitely more hesitance.”

BLAZE and Kiva US are extremely proud to partner and bold in our stances to add ease to capital raising for the underbanked. 

Register now for the FREE Blaze Virtual Summit | Summer 2022 and have a front row seat to speak directly with members of the Kiva team! We want to aid you in raising the capital required to fund your business.