Grameen tries crowdfunding in China to take microfinance to rural entrepreneurs

Grameen, the non-profit microfinance organization set up by Nobel Peace Prize-winning social entrepreneur Professor Muhammad Yunus (pictured above), is now using crowdfunding to build up its business in China.

Today Grameen partnered up with Chinese ecommerce store JD to use the company’s new crowdfunding site in order “to raise money to establish Grameen China’s ground operations.”

Huanqi Xiao from Grameen China explains the plan to Tech in Asia:

Grameen China opened its first office in July 2014. We are still in a very early stage which requires lots of financial support to make our operation successful and to expand our business – for example, to hire more Grameen experts to guide our operation, to build a new training center to train qualified staff to work with women in villages, and other operational expenses.

To do this, Grameen is seeking to crowdfund several microfinance projects on the JD site. The first of these involves selling tickets to a fundraising breakfast to be hosted by Yunus and JD founder Richard Liu on December 17. That has already raised RMB 129,000 (US$21,000) since it went online earlier today, well past its modest target.

Future crowdfunding campaigns will likely also use the JD crowdfunding platform “to provide micro-loans for entrepreneurs in rural areas of China, which have been underserved by the traditional banking system,” according to today’s announcement.

It makes a change from the usual crowdfunding fare of disappointing gadgets.

See: A social app that banks on China’s booming wine market wants to get users under its influence