Official Blog

Christmas is all about dreams, isn’t it? This is why we want to show you how easy it is to make dreams happen today. Last year, we started investing in businesses around the world via online microfinance platforms.  In 2009, we supported 15 different projects with more than 50 entrepreneurs. You might have already read some stories here on our blog – maybe even the one about Odilla, businesswoman from Kenya or about Chum Thon from Cambodia. To show you which great impact microfinance investments can have, we created a nice, little video that tells their stories and explains what the idea is all about:

We believe in microfinance, because people like you and me can make investments that stimulate motivation and grow over time. Help us to turn the dreams of thousands of entrepreneurs into reality. All it takes is a small loan, which helps people to help themselves. We hope that you like the idea and follow suit.

Have a merry Christmas everybody and thanks a lot for a great year 2009!

Thomas Hessler, Heiko Rauch and Jens Hewald

This month we have made several microfinance bids in Africa, which we would like to keep you updated on – and as usual hope that this will inspire you to follow suit.

We supported three projects in Kenya: Businesswoman Odilla founded her company Steod Beauty Products in 2005 and it has been growing ever since. She specializes in selling garments, shoes, handbags, hair products, cosmetics, perfumes, jewelery and other beauty products. She also runs a general shop where she sells sweets, cakes and rice.

The second Kenyan business we invested in is John Gitobu’s construction company Jozipy Hardware. John is selling construction materials and since he has some big projects coming up, he needs to buy a larger vehicle in order to transport his goods. The third Kenyan entrepreneur is Susan Kanyeki, who started her business called Friendly Farms in 1993.  She now possesses her own cooling plant which currently process up to 10,000 litres of milk per day. The business is looking to diversify into the more lucrative cheese and yoghurt markets. Susan has therefore begun constructing her own production factory.

We also made two investments in Tanzania: Sebastian Abdala Msola owns the logistics company Samtco Transport, which provides national and international transportation solutions to major African shipping companies. Since the demand for transporting big containers and logs increases, Sebastian would like to buy a new truck. The second entrepreneur from Tanzania is Imaculata Damas Paul. She owns a clothes and cosmetics shop and employs one more female sales person. She now wants to offer more goods to meet her customers’ demands.

We wish all of them best of luck with their business and are looking forward to more interesting projects we can support.

We just again invested in innovative ideas and entrepreneurship by using microfinance platforms to support business development around the world. This time we made bids in Haiti, Peru and Cambodia and are pleased to be able to help two different business people as well as a group of entrepreneurs.

The Haiti-based group is called “Mi Corason De Grand Bassin” and consists of fifteen male and female entrepreneurs. They have a wide range of businesses ranging from phone cards and repairs, to used clothing to peanut sales. 23-year old Lazar Rolinx, one of three representatives of the group, sells phone cards for all of the major phone companies in the country. He has also created a relationship with another business that repairs phones. By developing his business, he hopes to be better able to support his family.

The second project we are investing in is the business of 28-year old Cesarían in Peru. The mother of four children plants bananas, corn, yucca, and ginger in their own fields. She is also in touch with buyers in Lima, so she can increase her income to be able to pay for her children’s education.  With her current loan  she wants to buy fertilizers and to clear the fields for the next ginger planting.

Our third bid goes to Chum Thon in Cambodia. The 28 years old father of four young children has been performing as a musician since 2007. With the 5 dollars he earns from that every day, and his wife making additionally 5 dollars per day from selling cakes, they make their living. Chum Thom wants to use his loan to purchase musical instruments.

We wish him and all the other entrepreneurs best of luck and hope that our bids help them to successfully develop their business!

Time for us to again invest in innovative ideas and entrepreneurship around the world! We just made three additional microfinance bids in Ghana, Bolivia and Mongolia and, with that, are happy to support two business people as well as a group of entrepreneurs.

With the bid for Tuvshinbayar Myanganbuu, we are supporting the clothing business of a 23-year old woman in Arhangai Province, one of Mongolia’s central provinces. With her business profit, she looks after her parents, who have been in the retail clothing business since 1995. She has always been helping in her parents’ business and now, with her own business as the the sole family income, she works hard to make her living and look after her parents. We hope that she will now be able to purchase more clothing and small items for her business.

We also decided to support the entrepreneurs group Las Progresivas in Bolivia: The group has women and men who dedicate themselves to selling cosmetics, food, bakery goods, jewelry, CDs, DVDs, and footwear. We especially appreciate the efforts of the female president and co-founder of Las Progresivas, Ana Ynga Rojas Justiniano.  Her income helps to sustain her family. She dedicates herself to clothing sales and, with this new loan, she will also start selling shoes.

And last but not least: We made our third bid to Tidjani Shaibu Adamu in Ghana, who sells electrical appliances at Kotokoraba in Cape Coast. Tidjani is married and has been selling electrical appliances since 1993 in order to pay the school fees for his children. With the loan he wants to buy more electrical appliances and hopes to reinvest his new profits in his business.

We wish all of them, Tuvshinbayar, Tidjani and Las Progresivas, best of luck for their businesses and are sure they will succeed.  And of course we again hope that you now feel a little inspired by our new investments and follow us on the way to help investing in sustainable projects around the world.

Further pushing forward on our idea of investing in innovative ideas and entrepreneurship around the world, we just made two additional microfinance bids.

With investing in Vagif Abbasov, based in the Khirdalan settlement in Azerbaijan, we would like to support his idea of expanding his business for office supplies, books and discs. “I know that the people need the office supplies and the books, discs for education and that is why I want to buy discs with the programmes and books for self-education for people”, Vagif says. We thought this is a great intention and he deserves as much support as possible.

The second new project we are happy to support, is the printing shop of Mukiga Ganshanga in Uganda. He holds a degree in Education and started off with a bookshop, which soon expanded to a printing business to supply the schools in his area. He employs five workes, two of which are women. Now he needs more machinery to meet his customers demands, for example a modern printing machine and a paper cutter.

We are sure that both, Ganshanga and Vagif, will be very successful in their business and wish them best of luck. Of course we hope that you now feel again inspired by our new investments and follow us on the way to help investing in sustainable projects around the world.

It’s that time of the year again – and it’s time for a new exciting zanox project to kick-off. This Christmas, we decided to stop donating and start investing in innovative ideas and entrepreneurship around the world. From now on, we will support several social projects based on the idea of online microfinance platforms. Now you might be wondering what microfinance is and why we decided to support microfinance on a long-term basis – that’s why we prepared this nice little video:

We are very excited about the potential of online microfinance: Imagine a world where ambitious and innovative entrepreneurs are not dependent on the goodwill and random decision-making of big financial players anymore. This is the true web 2.0 spirit we believe in as a company.

And yes, the idea of microfinance might have been emerged in the context of developing countries, but it’s not limited to third world projects. Similar platforms have been founded in Europe to support European projects.

We’ll kick-off with 10,000 Euros, using different platforms and supporting different projects. For example we invested in Sammy Ngure Kungu’s cyber café in Kenya. Sammy plans to expand his business and would like to buy more computers.

And we supported the Nancy Patiño Menacho Group, an ambitious group of female entrepreneurs in Bolivia. The group members are involved in varoius economic activities such as cosmetics or food shops and internet cafés.

Of course we will keep you up to date on the progress on this blog and will soon introduce more projects we invest in.

We hope that many of you will follow us on this way and are now as thrilled about microfinance as we are.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year,

Thomas Hessler
and the whole zanox team