Haraka was founded in February 2024 to address financial exclusion by providing basic financial services, such as savings, borrowing, and credit-building, to underserved entrepreneurs using a reputation-based lending model powered by stablecoins. In its first year, Haraka expanded to Kenya and Ghana, engaging micro-entrepreneurs and leveraging social capital to assess creditworthiness. The Kenya pilot validated social reputation as a predictor of repayment, while the Ghana pilot demonstrated the viability of stablecoin-based lending in rural areas. Early results showed significant promise, with individuals with high social capital having substantially better repayment rates than those with low social capital.
We envision a world in which every business in the world has a Haraka profile that gives them access to crypto payments, onchain loans, and other financial services.
Billions of people around the world live in the informal economy. They don’t have bank accounts or credit scores and are excluded from the formal financial system. But that does not mean they are not worthy of credit; we just have to take a different approach.
Haraka is building a decentralized credit system. Each participant has their own wallet and self-sovereign credit score, which they build by repaying onchain loans, sharing verified financial information, and leveraging their social capital and reputation within their communities. We are targeting emerging market SMES, with operations in Kenya and Ghana.
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