On June 26th, we hosted an event at the beautiful Leonel Castillo Community Center to launch Lynn Kelly’s business, Once Upon a Praline, on Kiva Zip. We had a great turnout of around 60 people and we all enjoyed some fantastic food prepared by another Bayou Microfund company, The Savory Experience by Chef Rae. Here […]
We’ve just launched our third campaign on Kiva Zip: Once Upon a Praline! Lynn lives in Missouri City, TX and sold her first box of pralines back in 2012. Since then, she and her team have sold thousands of boxes to people throughout Houston, elsewhere in the US, and even to Australia. Lynn’s company makes […]
Our friend Alex’s business, Lemon-D-Lite was recently featured on the Kiva Zip blog as part of a series where they check in with borrowers to get an update on how things have gone since they’ve received funding. Alex, with the help of his friends and family, has made huge strides with his business and we […]
Good news! The IRS has just granted us status as a 501 (c) (3) corporation, meaning we are an official non-profit and are exempt from paying federal income taxes. Contributions to our organization are deductible under section 170 of the code.
We are excited to announce that our second company is now live on Kiva Zip! Click here to support Heather of Sweet Luxuries Boutique Bakery.She is looking to borrow $5,000 that will help her to purchase rental space in a commercial kitchen, ingredients, packaging, and prepare her all-natural baked goods for markets in local coffeehouses and […]
We had our first incubator session on Saturday, February 8th at the Leonel Castillo Community Center. We had great students from the UH Bauer Microfinance Program on-hand along with volunteers from banking, finance, marketing, and general entrepreneurship backgrounds to assist our microentrepreneurs in growing their businesses. Here are a couple of pictures from the morning. […]
We were recently mentioned in a blog post from 1776 DC, a startup accelerator in Washington, DC. The post touched on how microfinance has become more mainstream in the last 30 years, how some have feared that the movement was losing touch with its original social impact mission, and how startups are changing things today. […]
Last month, Prasad Menon and Bayou Microfund were featured on Xconomy.com, a site focused on business, life sciences, and technology news. The article touched on Prasad’s background, the founding of Bayou Microfund, and helped to announce that we were funding 5 graduates of the Bauer Microfinance Program. Click here to read it on Xconomy! Many […]
Volunteers, Advisors and Mentors Needed for Spring! We are looking for volunteers, advisors and mentors for the Spring Bauer Microfinance Program beginning on Saturday, 2/8. You’ll be providing valuable business, finance and marketing mentorship to micro-entrepreneurs in our community starting their own businesses. The hours are flexible and we require no more than a few […]
Our first Ziva Zip campaign is live! Alex Colby is raising a $5,000 loan for his business, Lemon-D-Lite. Here’s a little bit about the business from the Kiva page: “The name of my business is Lemon-D-Lite. We are a Houston based healthy snack food brand specializing in healthy popcorn. Our top selling product is The […]