20,000 kms to set up 300 companies

The Edhec Microfinance Tour Association was created by two EDHEC friends, aged respectively 21 and 22: Maxime Brousse and Thomas d?Harcourt.

Maxime and Thomas had the same dream and were ready to travel the world by bike for a year to achieve it. They have combined their talents, in other words, a flair for entrepreneurship for one and finance for the other, to develop an ambitious ethical micro-fund project.

The Project

The idea is to give 1€ per km covered to business organisations in developing countries in the form of microloans at zero % interest. They hope to lend €30,000 in total, enabling more than 300 companies to set up businesses in areas that are largely affected by poverty (Calcutta, Hanoi, La Paz, Malawi...), in other words almost one company a day. As a loan enables around 5 people on average to significantly improve their standard of living, the scheme should eventually allow over 1500 people to upgrade their lifestyle.

To make the initiative even more effective, our two intrepid Edhec travellers are currently working with associations in situ which will act as intermediaries for the micro-companies. They will then meet the companies they have decided to sponsor together to check out how well the scheme is working and to draft detailed reports on each micro-company. In the longer term, the money paid back from these microloans will go into an ethical micro-fund that they will set up when they get back.

The aim of the project is also to make the action perpetual with the ambition to recruit two more Edhec students in order to go and meet the worldwide borrowers in the following years. Globe Trotters

Maxime and Thomas left on Saturday 4 July, taking their bikes to Madrid, then to Buenos Aires, Lima, etc. They plan to return to Paris in July 2010.

They are currently heading through the Andes Mountains, at an altitude of 4,000 metres, leaving the town of Resistencia in the Chaco region (Argentina). The team has already financed 15 projects in Argentina, of which the creation of a supermarket, a hair styling salon and a leather shop. The trip, according to their report seems to be quite challenging as climate conditions are extremely tiring with minus 15 degree during the night. The cyclers achieved more than 3,500 Km, but there are still 17,000 Km to go... For more information, click here.