jkurnia

19 ms·

151.
by jkurnia 12y ago
We actually explored that before we met Bayes Impact. The Kaggle team thought a competition would be overkill for our data set (about 8000 loans).
152.
by jkurnia 12y ago
That's an interesting question. Thus far our market selection has been driven more by practical constraints than sophisticated analysis. We've focused on countries that have well-developed electronic payment systems (such as M-P
153.
by jkurnia 12y ago
I'm the founder of Zidisha, and I can't thank the Bayes Impact team enough for this project. Like most small nonprofits, we don't have the resources to hire in-house data scientists. Bayes Impact brought data science experti
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How people are going online in Africa now [video](youtube.com)
3 points by jkurnia 12y ago|1 comments
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Zidisha transparency project lead – remote internship(idealist.org)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago
156.
by jkurnia 12y ago
A good argument can be made either way, but I doubt we'd ever use a proofreader as so much of our identity is in keeping the lender-borrower communication direct and authentic. That said, we do allow our users to post translations of n
157.
by jkurnia 12y ago
I expect the default rate for loans being issued today will be less than 10%, because some of the amounts still outstanding will likely be repaid late. 90% is the portion of due amounts that has already been repaid (for 2014 loans). That s
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by jkurnia 12y ago
Companies like Kabbage (in the US) and Lenddo (Philippines, Colombia) use social graph data pretty extensively to predict credit risk. At Zidisha thus far, we're only using Facebook data to verify online identities of the applicants.
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by jkurnia 12y ago
We actually don't set any interest rate. Zidisha charges a flat 5% fee per year the loan is held (for example a $100 loan held for three months would cost $1.25). In addition to that, we allow each lender to choose the interest to rec
160.
by jkurnia 12y ago
The 90% figure is based on the amount of money repaid. More precisely, it's the amount that has been repaid for loans disbursed in 2014, divided by the amount that is due to have been repaid.
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by jkurnia 12y ago
I'm Julia, the founder of Zidisha. I'd be happy to respond to questions and comments.
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Zidisha (YC W14) stomps down non-performing loans with some extra tech(venturebeat.com)
8 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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by jkurnia 12y ago
We can receive SMS replies at the virtual Twilio number we use for automated notifications. We have an amazing virtual team of volunteers and interns who reply to those messages in various languages - we actually end up doing more support
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by jkurnia 12y ago
I'm Julia, founder of Zidisha. I'd be happy to respond to questions and comments.
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Zidisha (YC W14) Flattens Financial Barriers In Developing Countries With SMS(twilio.com)
10 points by jkurnia 12y ago|3 comments
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Community outreach remote internship at Zidisha(idealist.org)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago
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Zidisha crowdfunding campaign raised $54K (YC W14)(zidisha.tilt.com)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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Remote internships at Zidisha (YC W14 nonprofit)(zidisha.org)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago
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Ramadan, Africa, Women = A thriving international business(p2p-microlending-blog.zidisha.org)
3 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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Julia Kurnia of Zidisha – reddit AMA(reddit.com)
2 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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Julia Kurnia of Zidisha – reddit AMA(reddit.com)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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Kiva vs. Zidisha: Three Common Myths(huffingtonpost.com)
6 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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Remote volunteering and internships with Zidisha(zidisha.org)
1 points by jkurnia 12y ago
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Zidisha (YC W14) is crowdfunding its P2P microlending site(zidisha.crowdtilt.com)
3 points by jkurnia 12y ago|0 comments
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by jkurnia 12y ago
I think domestic P2P platforms are a big untapped opportunity in developing countries, especially large ones. They are still rare; Fairplace in Brazil is a notable exception. An international platform like Zidisha can offer a different val
176.
by jkurnia 12y ago
Most loans are held for less than one year, so the fee ends up being less than 5% of the amount raised.
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by jkurnia 12y ago
This is intended as a service fee, not interest. It is set at a level that, along with registration fees and lender tips, just covers our operating costs. (For example, in the first quarter of 2014 our average operating costs were $8,225 p
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by jkurnia 12y ago
We are intended as a platform for philanthropy. Any interest returns wouldn't be enough to compensate for risk.
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by jkurnia 12y ago
a) what collateral do you accept and how do you value the collateral? We don't accept any collateral, because 1) most of our borrowers are low-income individuals just entering the working population, and don't have any substantial
180.
by jkurnia 12y ago
We did consider adding bitcoin support, but opted to refrain for now because: - we did not identify a straightforward way to convert bitcoins to cash in borrower currencies - it seemed from our informal research that supporting bitcoin has

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