Supercharging product-led growth to create a financially inclusive world

As one of the first non-profit platforms to crowdfund microloans for underserved communities worldwide, Kiva has facilitated more than $1.5 billion in loans since its founding in 2005. When Kiva first partnered with Niftic, the organization was already making a global difference, helping millions improve their livelihoods and build brighter futures. But Kiva wasn’t content with great; they were ready to do even more.

With a clear mission to expand financial access, Kiva teamed up with Niftic to explore how a more intuitive user experience could lead to greater lending and deeper engagement. Through a strategic design thinking process, Niftic dug into Kiva’s user behaviors, motivations, and friction points, uncovering insights that sparked fresh ideas and new opportunities for growth.

These ideas were transformed into testable hypotheses, each explored through data-informed A/B experimentation. The goal: find the most effective tactics to increase user acquisition, conversion, and lending behavior. Every iteration brought Kiva closer to a smarter, more scalable product.

A key insight emerged: younger users were more inspired by broad cause areas than by micro-lending itself. This opened the door to a new opportunity to reframe Kiva’s product experience to spotlight high-impact categories like Women’s Entrepreneurship, Health Access, and Education.

With that, Niftic and Kiva co-developed a range of new strategies. From messaging that clearly communicated impact in these cause areas to product features that made it easier for users to discover and lend to borrowers aligned with their passions.

In the end, a product emerged that resonated more deeply with today’s mission-driven users. And a stronger foundation for ongoing innovation was built.

The partnership continues, with Niftic and Kiva working together to test new product fits, explore emerging user behaviors, and find fresh ways to connect people to purpose. All in hopes of expanding financial access and maximizing global impact.