Agora Partnerships
What to know about this Lending Partner
Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.
Status update — December 16, 2024
Kiva and Agora Partnerships have agreed to end their partnership after nearly 10 years and more than $400,000 in loans raised to Social Enterprises. This partner has repaid its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank Agora Partnerships for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.
Partner Description:
Agora Partnerships is a nonprofit organization that works with early-stage social businesses across Latin America that are too large to be considered microenterprises, but too small for investments from traditional financing institutions. These for-profit businesses are finding innovative ways to solve social and environmental challenges. They lack access to the knowledge, networks, and capital they need to grow their businesses and their impact.
Agora supports these businesses through the Agora Accelerator, an 8 month program in which selected businesses receive customized consulting services focused on driving investment into the company, access to a global community of investors, mentors, and peers, and opportunities to network with and pitch to investors. Agora has facilitated more than 14.5 million in financing to dozens of businesses that have participated in their Accelerator program.
A unique lending approach:
Through funding on Kiva, Agora Partnerships will be able to directly provide loans to some of the companies it supports. Loans will range from traditional short-term working capital loans to encourage growth and sustainability to more innovative longer term and cash flow/revenue based lending products customized to the particular needs of the companies.
Some of the loans will also include an “in-kind” community reinvestment so that the borrowers can reinvest funds in their communities. The latter is based on a model that has been successfully implemented by Agora Partnerships for one of its partners in Nicaragua.