Ninety years after Bing Crosby sang, 鈥淏rother, Can You Spare a Dime?鈥� Biruk Chafamo ’22 has an affirmative answer thanks to a web application that brings an ancient lending tradition into the 21st century.
In May, Chafamo and his app won the $10,000 top prize in the annual pitch competition sponsored by Bobcat Ventures, a student-run entrepreneur group supported by the 乐播传媒 Center for Purposeful Work.
The , and it facilitates small loans to people who are not well-served by traditional banks. What鈥檚 distinctive about Equb is the source of the loans 鈥� from one鈥檚 own circle of friends, family, and community 鈥� and how Chafamo employs web technology to efficiently gather the funders and their money.
The idea of a friend group making loans to its members is not new. Known as a 鈥渞otating savings and credit association,鈥� or RSCA, the concept is found in many countries, including Chafamo鈥檚 Ethiopia, where it鈥檚 known as ekub.
鈥淎lmost everyone, including my parents, use ekub to provide liquidity for one another and overcome their poverty,鈥� Chafamo explained to the judges. 鈥淓thiopian immigrants and also other immigrants here still use ekub as their primary form of finance.鈥�
Chafamo explained to the judges how it works.
鈥淚magine you’re trying to borrow money from a bank to buy an oven, but the bank looks at your very poor credit score and they slap you with a 20 percent interest rate. Then you remember that a lot of your friends have money sitting in their savings account, collecting less than 0.5 percent interest rate.鈥�
Instead of taking the bank鈥檚 usurious rate, 鈥渨hy not form a group with your friends and take turns, borrowing and lending money to each other?鈥� Besides helping out a friend, the entire group gets way better rates, both loan and investment, than a bank would offer, he said.
Evaluating the eight pitches this year were alumni judges Emma Sprague 鈥�10, co-founder of leadership development group Upswing Strategies; Chris Barbin 鈥�93, founder and CEO of Tercera.io, an investment and advisory firm focused on the third wave of cloud computing; and Ben Schippers 鈥�04, cofounder of the web and mobile app developer HappyFunCorp.
Sprague asked Chafamo why, if the lending-circle tradition has been around so long, hasn鈥檛 it been made into a mobile or web app before. 鈥淥r has it?鈥�
Yes, it has, said Chafamo, naming LendingClub as a U.S. competitor in the space. But while LendingClub describes itself as a peer-to-peer business, 鈥渋t鈥檚 really not,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey provide loans to users sourced from individual investors. My approach is to use the social connections that people already have to allow them to form their own lending groups.鈥�
Barbin, who with Sprague serves on the 乐播传媒 Board of Trustees, praised the vivid sense of purpose behind Chafamo鈥檚 app. In a crowded entrepreneurial landscape, people are drawn to mission-driven businesses that have a clear purpose.
鈥淭he purpose and mission come from your roots and your story. I love that,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ith purpose- and mission-driven businesses right now, that’s what potential employees will be drawn to when you do start to recruit and scale. That鈥檚 very powerful.鈥�
This year鈥檚 student entrepreneurs rose to the challenges of developing pitches during a pandemic year and effectively presenting them on Zoom, said Barbin. 鈥淚 think we could have easily expected a little bit of a watering down because of the virtual environment. But things just got even better.鈥�
鈥淎 huge shoutout to everyone,鈥� added Schippers. 鈥淲e saw a lot of work. A lot of practice. Our job was tough.鈥�
Other pitches included a financial consulting firm supporting entrepreneurs of the African diaspora, an app that helps college students organize pickup games and schedule athletic field space, and a media company focused on the outdoor experience through the lens of social justice and the environment.
Presented via Zoom video conference on May 1, the event was seen by friends and family worldwide.
The judges also awarded two runner-up prizes of $2,500 each.
Nicole Kumbula ’21, now a newly minted 乐播传媒 graduate with a major in chemistry, received a runner-up prize for her social-business pitch, Ukama Igasva, focusing on food security and community morale in her grandmother鈥檚 home village in Zimbabwe.
The name comes from the Shona-language phrase 鈥�Ukama Igasva unozadziswa nekudya,鈥� meaning 鈥淩elationships are not complete until they are solidified with a meal.鈥�
With her funding, Kumbula hopes to bolster and sustain the ownership of cattle in her grandmother鈥檚 village, where cattle are valuable not just for household farming and transportation, but in community social rites such as marriage. Her own high school tuition, in fact, was funded by her grandmother鈥檚 sale of cattle.
鈥淲e know you could put the money to work immediately and, from a cause standpoint, you would and the community would see a massive impact,鈥� said Schippers. 鈥淵ou can help unlock the future of your community.鈥�
Armaan Mecca ’21, a physics major from Chennai, India, pitched Passionfruit, an app that addresses the problem facing up-and-coming musicians: how to monetize their music through streaming.
鈥淚nstead of an artist having to look for listeners, the listeners would come to the artist,鈥� said Mecca.
鈥淭he problem is especially compounded in India, where there’s only one path to success in the music industry, and that’s going through Bollywood,鈥� says Mecca, who developed the app with cousins Hamza Mecca and Amr Mecca. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more about who you know and how much money you can spend than how talented you are.鈥�
, PassionFruit鈥檚 social platform focuses on music discovery. 鈥淚nstead of an artist having to look for listeners,鈥� and spending the little money they have on marketing, 鈥渢he listeners would come to the artist,鈥� said Mecca.
Barbin said the app resonated with his own extensive experiences 鈥� 50-plus trips 鈥� in India. 鈥淚 love what your solution can bring to the energy and passion for music and individualism in India.鈥�
Bobcat Ventures promotes entrepreneurship with year-round workshops, alumni visits, and the signature annual pitch competition. Joining the judges on pitch day were club leaders Andres Carranza 鈥�21, Kerry Manuel 鈥�21, Pierson Rambusch 鈥�22, J. Daniel Kim 鈥�22, and Purposeful Work staffers Marianne Nolan Cowan 鈥�92 and Peter Osborne.
In their closing remarks the judges made clear that Bobcat Ventures doesn鈥檛 begin and end on pitch day, and that 乐播传媒 entrepreneurs are there for each other.
鈥淲e will continue the conversation throughout the course of the summer and the fall,鈥� said Schippers. 鈥淲e will work with the winners and with anybody who wants to partake in continuing conversations about how they can pursue their ideas 鈥� you can have our continued support.鈥�
