P2P-Banking.com

13 minute video (careful the video is >300 MB, requires fast internet connection) on MyC4. MyC4 facilitates peer to peer microloans to African entrepreneurs.

The video shows the situation in Uganda and many borrowers who talk about their plans. During an audience the founder gets praise by the wife of the president of Uganda for the concept.

Highly recommended viewing.

After MyC4.com was featured on Danish national TV in a 15 minute feature many new lenders signed up. Within 3 days lender count rose from about 500 to currently 964. At MyC4 lenders (called investors) loan money to African entrepreneurs. The bidding frency of new lenders did lower closing interest rate dramatically. Loans now closed at 2 to 3 percent lender interest rate (previously usually 10 to 12 percent). MyC4 will now have to increase the number of listings, otherwise they might be temporably be sold out like happened to Kiva.
Yesterday the first loan listings from Ivory Coast went online.

Peer to peer lending is about one individual lending money directly to another individual. By this definition there is no way companies as lenders would fit in, or is there?
I reported earlier that Prosper seeks a Vice President Institiutional Lender Development. Comments in the Prosper forums on that plans were mostly negative.

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In early September I started funding peer-to-peer microloans to African entrepreneurs on MyC4. Yesterday the first repayments were credited to my account. Siraje Sselugo, a poultry farmer, that wanted to increase the number on chicken paid on time. I had loaned him 20 Euro for a 6 month term at 24% interest. Lydia Lwanga, who sells school stationary and wants to stock more products with the loan, repaid on time. My loan to her was 15 Euro for a 6 month term at 22% interest. All the other repayments were on time, too:

(Screenshot of my account balance at MyC4).

MyC4 allows minimum bids of 10 Euro. So far my portfolio contains 37 small bids on funded loans.

MyC4.com switched today from closed beta to public beta. Now it is possible to browse the site without registering. For example click on one of the opportunities on the left of the screen and you get a good idea of the concept.

MyC4 allows lenders to do microlending to entrepreneurs in Africa. Lenders do get paid interest. Check the previous P2P-Banking coverage of MyC4.

MyC4 introduced "automatic bidding", an automatic bidding assistant that will bid on any new loan listings that match parameters set by the lender. Similar to the Standing Orders feature of Prosper.com, but not with as many selection criteria.
Mads Kjaer, CEO of MyC4, said:

The Auto Bid request came from several of the businesses we have talked with and also several Builders who asked for a quick way of get going.

You could say that this feature is also the preparation for e.g. philantrophy funds or bi-lateral organisations who want to use My4 to reach micro entrepeneurs in Africa at NO COST = 100.000 credits is 100.000 credits invested …

MyC4 now also enables the use of Paypal to transfer money into the MyC4 account.

Researching the MyC4 concept (see previous post) there are some usability features that call for a comparision to Prosper.com:

1. Auction: The model of Prosper seems much more straightforward to me then the auction model of MyC4. The possibility of bidding above the maximum interest rate as long as the weighted average interest is below it, gives it a major twist. Every lender on a loan ends up with a different interest rate while borrower nominal interest rate is the weighted average (mind-boggling, isn't it?). And the full transparency of all bids during bidding process is interesting.
2. Usability, communication and transparency: The interface is designed for much interaction. Everywhere the user can post comments (to profiles, to blogs, to loans, to listings). And with a user added avatar on every comment, it is very personal. No anonymity since real names are used (not screen names). Anybody can view the loans other lenders are invested in. Users can add icons to their profile to show which motivation led them to MyC4 (be it profit, education, social lending, …) 
3. Defaults. So far none, but naturally it is much to early to judge. Hopefully MyC4 will have defaults as low as Kiva and prove that third world borrowers are more reliable.

There will be continued coverage about my experiences at MyC4.

Danish startup C4 World on it's platform MyC4 allows lenders to finance micro loans to African entrepreneurs (Afripreneurs). P2P briefly featured the MyC4 plans earlier. The goal is to "eradict poverty through business". The service is currently in beta, but signing up and lending at MyC4 is already possible.

MyC4 differs in its approach from Kiva: At MyC4 lenders do earn interest on the loans. Currently interest rates of 20-24% are typical with loan terms of 6 or 12 month.

P2P-Banking.com joined the Beta as a MyC4 Builder. The gathered experiences are published in an exclusive P2P-Banking.com review of MyC4:
http://www.wiseclerk.com/myc4-p2p-banking-review.pdf (0,4 MB, 3 pages)

C4-World.com announced that it will start closed beta testing on MyC4.com in May. On MyC4 social lending will aid African businesses. Individual lenders grant loans for the duration of 6 to 12 months. A difference to the microfinance concept of Kiva.org is that lenders will earn interest. Furthermore C4-World aims to not only offer money, but also knowledge to the entrepreneurs in Africa through it's online community. 

Public launch of MyC4 is scheduled for Q4 2007. Minimum investment is $200. I am to participate in the closed beta and will publish my experiences.