Rang De is a web­site that does peer-to-peer micro lend­ing for start up entre­pre­neurs in India. Peo­ple can sign in to Rang De to become investors and help con­tribute to loans. Investors can invest a lit­tle as 250 rupees for loans rang­ing from 3000 to 10,000. The dif­fer­ence between this site and Kiva is that investors can make a return on their loans.

From this write up on Rang De that we found at Sil­i­con India, we find a pro­file of an busi­ness who is almost fin­ished pay­ing off such a loan.

Rang De Micro­cre­dit:
These are loans pro­vided to small enter­prises in rural areas. Typ­i­cally, the loans range in size from Rs.3000 to Rs.10,000 and is usu­ally used as work­ing cap­i­tal by micro-entrepreneurs. Here’s is Kusum’s story and what she has done with her loan:

A woman is said to have many facets and Kusum is cer­tainly one of them. The loss of her hus­band early in life, made this quiet home­maker, a sharp busi­ness­woman. The small cycle shop that she runs, rents out bicy­cles and also ser­vices and repairs other bicy­cles in the area. A loan from Rang De helped give the shop a face-lift and it now boasts of six new bicy­cles. Kusum also keeps all the spare parts for bicy­cles and her shop has become a one-stop shop for every­thing to do with cycle ser­vic­ing. She is the hap­pi­est when all her cycles are away on hire, as it assures her of a sub­stan­tial income.“Of late, I have handed over a part of the respon­si­bil­i­ties of the shop, to my son.” says Kusum with a sigh of relief. But she makes sure that her chil­dren pur­sue their edu­ca­tion. “I don’t want them to face the same prob­lems that I faced.” she says with a smile. Just another eight weeks — and she will be free of her loan. For more sto­ries on Kusum and her peers, Check http://rangde.org/home.htm#s/109″

Rang De Edu­ca­tion:
Rang De Edu­ca­tion was started to pro­vide loans for edu­ca­tion needs of low income house­holds. Rang De cur­rently funds the school fees and expenses incurred at the begin­ning of the aca­d­e­mic year by pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion loans. The cur­rent pilot is being run in asso­ci­a­tion with an NGO in Hyder­abad. For more infor­ma­tion on how it works, check http://rangde.org/rangdeEducation.htm”

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