That’s according to a report Saturday (July 26) by the Financial Times (FT), which cited the example of San Francisco lender Divine Research. That company said it has made roughly 30,000 unbacked short-term loans since December, working with OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s iris-scanning company World to identify borrowers.
“We’re loaning to average folks like high school teachers, fruit vendors … basically anyone with access to the internet can get access to our funds,” Divine’s founder Diego Estevez said in an interview with the FT. “This is microfinance on steroids.”
According to the report, Divine offers loans of under $1,000 worth…
Jul 28 2025
