EthicHub

It would mean massive exposure of our project to broader audiences, adding credibility (key to any crowdlending platform) because of the high reputation of Elevate Prize, thus resulting in increased visibility to attract potential lenders and direct buyers for our farmers products, as well as strategic alliances with partners, collaborators or providers. Regarding the funding, it would mean a boost to our road map to increase the metrics of impacted farmers.

Being so lucky as to live between two worlds (Europe and Latin America) allowed us to know first hand about their ups and downs. We clearly saw an opportunity on directly connecting both to transform some of their problems into mutual solutions. We have been witnesses over the years of the widening gap between the economies, and how this would hurt both sides (in order to be sustainable, a given situation must be profitable for all the parties). We decided to do something about it and to work into solving this with a meaningful and sustainable approach. We wanted to prove it can be done, so now more entrepreneurs would follow this path.

Crowdlending platforms grow at rates of more than 100% per year thanks to the fact that they offer to eliminate intermediaries in the financial sector by putting lenders and borrowers in contact. Blockchain allows a new level in the development of the crowdlending sector by improving security and transparency, facilitating international transactions between strangers.

We are pioneers in this new concept of global economy Farmers get easier and cheaper access to financing and investors and lenders can achieve a very competitive annual interest rate of up to 8%. This is possible due to the large difference between what farmers usually pay locally for cash loans (crazy interest rates of up to 120% are not uncommon) and the frustratingly low interest markets where our lenders are based. Via Blockchain and without any intermediaries we bring both sides together and make this economic exchange happen. Our working prototype of the platform can count on already more than 600 active lenders, which is remarkable since hardly any investments have gone into marketing so far. In the mid- to long term it will become a fully fledged, UX optimised Lending Marketplace.

Blockchain technology provides a transparency on funds management not seen before, along with a reduction of the operational costs; It also allows for a true Peer-to-Peer where lenders transfer value directly to farmers, with no intermediaries; thanks to disintermediation, we can offer the buyers a full traceability of the products; Synergie between lending and Contract Farming (direct buyers) results in a lower risk and higher benefits for all stakeholders; EthicHub focuses on last mile agricultural farmers with experience in their activities to reduce risk compared with loans for tiny entrepreneurs; Borrowers at EthicHub get loans at similar rates than those at Kiva.org but our lenders get a return while theirs are altruistic -even when our agricultural borrowers are more expensive and complex to reach out than rural borrowers-.

The theory known as The Vicious Cycle of Poverty indicates that the greater the poverty, the lower the capacity of people to save and plan for the future. Citizens with low incomes use them to cover for their family’s basic needs, lacking saving capacity; therefore they cannot make investments and their productivity is low. Thus poverty is inherited from one generation to another.

Nearly 1 billion farmers in developing countries are trapped in such cycle. They need financing to carry out their work, but they are excluded from the financial and banking systems for different reasons; they do not have guarantees, they have no credit history, they live in remote areas, financial infrastructures do not reach their communities, they do not have an accredited identity ...This situation forces them to apply for very unfavorable loans. EthicHub provides them with a new solution

EthicHub’s mission is to improve the small farmers’ standard of living by increasing their productivity to raise their income and savings. With EthicHub we all win, because we truly believe a sustainable economy must be profitable to all the parties.