Small businesses in the U.S. are now receiving microloans online through Kiva.org. This signals a growing trend in U.S. microfinance programs and comes in the wake of the credit crunch.

"Poverty exists in every country, including the United States, and Kiva hopes to address poverty wherever it exists," the organization said in a statement published on its Web site.

Kiva was founded in 2005 to help the working poor in developing countries. To date, the Kiva community has raised $75 million for microentrepreneurs in 44 countries.

The nonprofit online lender has partnered with Accion USA and Opportunity Fund to screen borrowers and administer loans. The average loan size is about $7,000, with an interest rate of 2 to 12 percent. In comparison, a typical microloan in Kenya is about $500, and interest rates range from 15 to 40 percent annually.

The 29 initial loan requests include a home day care center, recycling business, hot dog stand, bakery and board game shop. Some of the borrowers were profiled on "Good Morning America"; a few hours after the segment aired, a U.S. loan was fully funded.

But are these businesses considered a microenterprise or their owners poor?

Worldwide, the definition is relative. For example, in the U.S., a microbusiness is defined as having five or less employees and only require an initial capital of $35,000 or less. In developing countries, this would be a medium-sized enterprise.

But many borrowers in the U.S. experience some of the same hurdles to getting a loan as their counterparts in the developing world. These include lack of credit histories, no collateral and high interest rates.

The recent financial crisis has certainly reduced the amount of credit available to such small businesses and startups in the U.S., making microloan schemes attractive.

Some in the U.S. microfinance community hope the sector's philosophy of serving the poor and underprivileged on equitable terms will spread to big banks. This sentiment was conveyed during the Microfinance California conference at Stanford University in May 2009 and shared by microfinance pioneer Grameen Bank, which brought its model of village banking to Brooklyn, N.Y. in 2008.

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