Nasha Lending’s Microloans Curate Local Entrepreneurship

Necessity is the mother of invention. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, loans to small businesses plummeted, leaving would-be entrepreneurs few options for startup funds. Enter Nasha Lending, a nonprofit that collects funds from investors and issues those funds as microloans to under-resourced entrepreneurs. The company, whose name is derived from the Hebrew word nasha, “to lend,” is directed by Taylor Beard, a 2011 political science and Spanish graduate of Furman University. In an Upstate Business Journal piece by Andrew Moore, Beard says, “All of our programs build a solid foundation for aspiring entrepreneurs. We want to be the place that launches people into entrepreneurship.”