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This makes YCombinator look bad. Did they know about this before investing in Zidisha? If not, maybe consulting the likes of GiveWell could be a good idea.

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GiveWell's written about microfinance before, fairly skeptically:

http://blog.givewell.org/2009/10/23/6-myths-about-microfinan...

http://www.givewell.org/international/economic-empowerment/m...

GiveWell? Aren't those the guys that astroturfed MetaFilter a few years ago?

Yes, but that was before "growth hacking" was cool.

Yep. Although they apologized publicly for it and came out being a much stronger organization.

Their apology (not half bad): http://www.givewell.org/about/shortcomings

Deceit in lending is not uncommon among microfinance organizations, but it's surprising to see it from a YC-backed company. I look forward to Zidisha's response, I'm sure they'll shed more light on it.

Also, 6 years later, their apology is still posted and crosslinked on their website, years later, in an easily accessible/sharable URL.

MeFi's analysis, which FWIW, notes that most of the offending activity was done under the founders' real first-names: http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Givewell

(Where is AirBnB's apology for violating Craigslist's TOS with the spamming from "Jessica"?)

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