About

 

Prana is a mobile app based on the age-old system of savings and credit. These informal lending systems are known by different names around the world: Sou Sou in the Caribbean community, Tanda in the Latin community, Sociedad amongst Dominicans, Kye amongst the Koreans, Committee amongst the South Asians, and many more. 

 

Prana is a brainchild of Rick Lin and Shagun Singh. 

 

The seeds of Prana were planted after a conversation with their friend Gurpal, a community organizer who works in a neighborhood with a large Punjabi population. He talked about the prevalence of informal lending circles in the community, and how everyone was actively using this type of financing to buy homes, start businesses and send money home to India.  After this conversation, Shagun and Rick began to think about the possibilities for leveraging technology to facilitate community lending, and to bring these lending systems to a wider audience. And after observing a “Kitty” lending circle in India, and the concept of Prana was solidified.

 

Prana is for everyone and you’ll benefit the most if you have a trusted network of people around you. Even though immigrants use this, it could serve a much larger population especially business owners looking for a cash advance, and millennials starting out with saving.

 

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