RangDe.Org
Description
RangDe.Org is a web based platform that raises social capital from individuals and deploys it as loan capital to low income households. Rang De leverages the internet to lower the cost of capital through this fundraising model. Rang De borrowers thus pay an interest rate that ranges from 5% flat p.a to 10% flat p.a. based on the loan product.
What we deliver
Social Investors: We provide Individual social investors the ability to make social investments starting from as little as Rs. 100 and track the progress of their social investments. All these can be done at ease with just a few clicks through the online platform. Social Investors also get evaluation stories of borrowers these are published on the website.
Field Partners: NGOs and non-profit MFIs who partner with Rang De can use the online application to enter data relating to their borrowers who are funded through Rang De, update repayments and generate reports relating to their Rang De portfolio. This helps them cut down on costs and get familiar with using technology to manage their portfolio.
Rang De Borrowers: They do not use the online application but are beneficiaries of the online portal and crowd-sourced fundraising resulting in microcredit at reasonable interest rates.
Whom we deliver
Rang De caters to three different user groups: Social Investors: Individuals who can choose online an entrepreneur from a low income household and invest as little as Rs. 100. Social investors can also login to their account online to track the status of their social investments and read reports about how the loan has been utilized. Field Partners: NGOs and non-profit MFIs who partner with Rang De. They can use the online application to enter data relating to their borrowers who are funded through Rang De, update repayments and generate reports relating to their Rang De portfolio. Rang De Borrowers: Do not use the online application but are beneficiaries of the online portal and crowd-sourced fundraising resulting in microcredit at reasonable interest rates.
Why is the project unique?
The problem Rang De is trying to address is inaccessibility of affordable finance to low income households for business and education. Rang De’s mission is to reach out to the underserved by supporting them with microcredit at affordable interest rates. In case of microfinance institutions, there is very little scope to lower the cost because they borrow capital from financial institutions. Due to the involvement of financial institutions, their cost of capital is quite high. This puts the MFI in tremendous pressure to scale up thus leaving them with very little scope to start operations in underserved geographies or reach out to underserved communities. In case of Rang De, we enable individuals to lend small sums of money to borrowers and help create a new form of capital: social capital. Since individuals are lending small sums of money in multiples of Rs.100, their appetite for risk is higher than that of a financial institution. The individual social investor is also more benevolent in case of genuine default. For the first time individual social investors can now make a social investment of Rs.100 or more. This lets the civil society to participate using the power of internet and social media communications. By removing the financial institution from the microcredit equation, Rang De is leveraging the peer-to-peer platform to raise social capital from middle class and upper middle class Indians. We offer microcredit loans at low interest rates. Our borrowers pay 8.5% flat p.a. on business loans and 5% flat p.a. on education loans. This is unique as a large majority of our borrowers are first time borrowers and would have never experienced microcredit thanks to the high cost of traditional microcredit 15% – 20 % flat p.a.
Roadmap
Rang De will work with its existing field partners to deepen its impact and scale up its products such as Education Loans that have the potential to change lives. Rang De’s vision is to Make Poverty History in India.
Contact
Ramakrishna N.K
Rang De
A1102, Ajmera Green Acres, Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
560076
URL/Website – www.rangde.org
