After 14 years of successful microfinance experience in Central America and Ghana as a nonprofit, Global Brigades (a current Kiva partner since 2015) realized that to scale its lending program, it needed to attract different types of external funding, thus the creation of Eskala. Eskala is a new legal entity that is a spin-off of Global Brigades' microfinance program. Eskala's goal is to be in the thousands of community banks, and Global Brigades (GB) did not believe their nonprofit could raise the necessary funds to meet that goal. However, the nonprofit (Global Brigades) owns most of the Company, so it is still benefiting as Eskala succeeds. 

Eskala's mission is to structure and fund small or starting community-owned banks and farming cooperatives whose members have been historically excluded from essential financial services. Lending to community-owned banks allows individuals to access financial services and establishes a local financial entity to promote sustainable economic growth in the community by offering hyperlocal savings and loan products. Eskala's microfinance technicians serve in a typical loan officer role and provide substantial financial literacy education and training on successfully operating a community-owned bank to community leaders. This practice strengthens leadership and empowers community members (primarily women) to take ownership of a stable, local financial structure. These cooperatives use the loans for either strategic investments that benefit the entire group, like shared equipment/seed/land, or provide financial inclusion to the local population through smaller business and agriculture loans.