Kiva Grows its Lending Community with Data and Insights from Snowflake Computing

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Snowflake Computing, the data warehouse built for the cloud, today announced that Kiva, an international nonprofit organization connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty, uses Snowflake to improve outcomes in impoverished and financially excluded communities around the world with better data. By harnessing data and insights collected from over two million borrowers globally, Kiva is pushing the boundaries of microcredit with innovative new lending products and advancing the financial services industry overall.

Kiva's non-profit marketplace connects borrowers and lenders directly to supply over $1.16 billion dollars in loan capital in more than 85 countries. Facilitating 32,395 transactions every day, the company manages as much data as traditional banks, yet with far fewer resources.

"Making accurate information around repayment available to lenders in real time is critical," Kiva CTO Kevin O'Brien said. "What's more, the aggregate data we gather on successful loan repayment is a tremendous validator for Kiva's nonprofit micro-lending model. It also helps us build trust with everyone involved, from our fast-growing lender community to the established financial institutions we partner with worldwide."

Kiva switched to Snowflake in 2016 after attempting several data science initiatives with other vendors in recent years. With Snowflake, Kiva has not only increased efficiency and cost savings but also quadrupled the value of its data set in a variety of ways across the company, including:

• Institutionalized data sharing – Kiva uses Snowflake to enable consistent and reliable data reporting across 400 Trustees and Field Partners to better source entrepreneurs, screen borrowers, post loan requests, disburse loans, and collect payments.
• Democratized research – With Snowflake, Kiva can meet demands from academic institutions for access to anonymized Kiva data for economic research. Several recent research reports detailing the unique findings are on Kiva's website here.
• Widened audience – Snowflake helps Kiva determine the new markets to focus advertising efforts, greatly improving media purchasing decisions.
• Increased funding – Kiva receives a third of its funding from foundations, whose giving depends on data. Snowflake helps Kiva maintain critical grants from Mastercard Foundation and Capital One, among others.
• Improved lending strategy – Snowflake processes Kiva's social proof mechanism, which helps the nonprofit vet borrowers more effectively by understanding their online network. Once this data is warehoused, it can be shared and eventually automated to help scale analysis and serve more users.
• Ensured operational efficiency and cost savings – Kiva uses Snowflake to ensure its technology is operating as efficiently as possible in the cloud so that resources go to its core lending activities instead of managing the complexities of modern IT infrastructure.

"We see a future where refugees and those living in economically unstable communities can share their Kiva history with regional and national banks for credit lending decisions powered by Snowflake," says O'Brien. "As we help more people move up the ladder of financial inclusion, we can focus on reaching more of the communities who need our help most."

"Kiva really epitomizes the value that Snowflake brings international organizations in its ability to harness all of its global user data," says Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia. "It's thrilling to see Kiva use data warehousing to improve global economics in so many ways."

About Snowflake Computing
Snowflake is the only data warehouse built for the cloud. Snowflake enables the data-driven enterprise with instant elasticity, secure data sharing and per-second pricing. Snowflake combines the power of data warehousing, the flexibility of big data platforms and the elasticity of the cloud at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions. Snowflake: Your data, no limits. Find out more at snowflake.net.

About Kiva
Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.

SOURCE Snowflake Computing

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