Jia launches partnership with Huma Finance to bring small businesses in emerging markets on chain
At Jia, we’re working to build a global financial community where small businesses in any part of the world can access capital when they need it, be rewarded for the value they contribute to the economy, and build wealth. Simply put, we envision a world where everyone has control of their financial destiny.
To make our vision a reality, we created Jia to connect global capital with underserved small businesses. The blockchain plays a key role in this — with a blockchain-based credit pool, we can seamlessly allow investors to contribute funds and borrowers to access financing while building an on-chain credit history.
Today, Jia is thrilled to announce the official launch of our partnership with Huma Finance. Jia’s first on-chain credit pool, built on the Huma Protocol, is a massive first step towards connecting capital to people in need of financing across the world. 🌍 🌏 🌎
We are excited to partner with Huma Finance because of their unique mission and world-class founding team. Huma is an income-backed lending protocol that empowers people and businesses around the world. The company provides a decentralized, transparent, and accessible financial infrastructure, as well as a flourishing ecosystem of investors and builders.
Founded by Erbil Karaman, Richard Liu, Ji Peng, Lei Du, and Michael Liu, Huma Finance is helping realize the promise of DeFi lending for billions of people around the globe who need it. While many crypto lending protocols have arisen in the past few years, few actually connect investors to real-world income-backed opportunities. Requirements for over-collateralization of a small range of assets has locked out many from DeFi. Huma Finance is changing that by creating an income-backed DeFi protocol specifically for people who might be left out of traditional banking.
Using the Huma Protocol, Jia launched its Pioneer Fund Pool last week to connect lenders to real borrowers around the world. These include vendors like Francis Njoroge in Kenya, who uses Jia to finance his growing spice business, and Dr. Jesse Obengo, who borrows from Jia to fund his medical clinic in Nairobi and provide critical healthcare to his community.
The Jia Pioneer Fund Pool launched on Wednesday, May 17 with a cap of $100,000 and became fully subscribed in less than 24 hours from its launch. The pool is fully collateralized by Jia’s assets and projects sustainable returns to investors powered by real-world businesses in emerging markets. Among the first LPs in the Pioneer Fund were investors Packy McCormick of Not Boring Capital, Anand Iyer of Canonical Crypto, Tomer Bariach of Flori Ventures, and Fern Gouveia of Compa Capital. While the first pool is fully subscribed, Jia is currently accepting commitments for its next pool. Interested investors can fill this form or register their interest by emailing invest@jia.xyz. 💸
Huma’s founders have rich experience expanding digital and financial access to underserved populations — they met while working at the fintech lending company Earnin, where Erbil served as Chief Product Officer and Richard served as Chief Technology Officer. While Erbil, Richard, and their team most recently helped expand financial access in the United States at Earnin, Huma Finance’s mission is global. We at Jia are looking forward to working with Huma’s talented, mission-aligned team to make that happen. 🚀
Read more about the partnership in Huma’s words here.
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About Jia: Jia is expanding financial freedom across the globe. Jia provides blockchain-based financing to small businesses, then rewards borrowers who repay with ownership, enabling them to create wealth and prosperity for themselves and their communities. Learn more at https://www.jia.xyz/.
About Huma Finance: Huma Finance is an income-backed DeFi protocol for the 99%. It enables businesses and people around the world to use their income and receivables as collateral to borrow against. Learn more at https://huma.finance/.
