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Mifos Initiative

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Mifos Initiative
FoundedOctober 2011
Type501(c)(3)
FocusMicrofinance
Financial inclusion
Location
OriginsGrameen Foundation
ProductsMifos X
Payment Hub EE
Mifos Gazelle
Mifos X Mobile Applications
Key people
Ed Cable
(CEO)
Websitemifos.org

The Mifos Initiative is a U.S.-based non-profit that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mifos X project, alongside its other projects Payment Hub Enterprise Edition, Mifos Gazelle and Mifos X Mobile Applications. Founded in October 2011, the organization encompasses a community of financial service providers, technology specialists, financial services experts and open source developers working together to grow the Mifos X open source platform for financial services. Its goal is to speed the elimination of poverty by enabling financial service providers to more effectively and efficiently deliver responsible financial services to the world's 2.5 billion poor and unbanked.

History

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Development of the software began as an initiative of the Grameen Foundation in 2004. It was initiated by James Dailey and Tapan Parikh,[1] and launched as open-source software Mifos in 2006. The name "Mifos" originally came from an acronym "Micro Finance Open Source", but is now used as the brand, rather than an acronym. Mifos existed within Grameen Foundation until 2011, when it was decided that Mifos would split off to be an independent, open-source entity.

On June 1, 2011, Grameen Foundation announced that it would be ending its direct involvement with the Mifos Initiative and transitioning the project to a new organization, the Mifos Initiative, which then controlled the Mifos and Mifos X projects.[2][3][4]

In 2015, Mifos contributed the core Mifos X platform to Apache Software Foundation and the project is now called Apache Fineract(R).[5]

Since 2015 Mifos continued to maintain Mifos X as a number of modules and applications that worked on top of the Fineract(R) backend. Mifos X was recognised as a Digital Public Good since the CoP for Financial Inclusion identified 7 key DPGs in their technical assessment in 2021. Mifos X has maintained this recognition since [6]. [7]

Mifos Initiative also stewards a number of other open-source projects that focus on financial services (Core Banking, Payment Orchestration).

Payment Hub EE - A payment orchestration system [8] which supports DFSP connections to instant inclusive payment rails, account management systems, Payment Schemas and Fraud Detection systems. Payment Hub EE was recognised as a Digital Public Good in 2024 [9]. Payment Hub EE is also recognised by GovStack as a Level 1 Payments Building Block Solution [10]

Mifos Gazelle - A DPI as a Solution Deployment Tool, launched in 2024.[11]

A range of Mobile Applications that work with Mifos Projects [12]

Community

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Mifos Initiative community group photo during October 2012 summit in Bangalore

The Mifos community includes developers, implementers, and users from various countries who collaborate through mailing lists, Slack, working groups, internships, attendance and promotion of DPGs and Open Source at conferences. Previously Mifos has organised annual conferences.

Mifos previously organized an annual summit for developers and users with conferences, exhibitions and other audience-oriented events. The 2012 summit was held in Bangalore, and in 2013, it was held at Jaipur in the month of October. Held in Kuampala, Uganda, the 2014 Summit was a four-day event with a large focus on hands-on training for partners and users, collaborative tech sessions for contributors, and educational sessions focussing on fin-tech and the financial inclusion sector.

Mifos has also participated in several other independent events. In 2013, Mifos has participated in Google Summer of Code[13] as well as Random Hacks of Kindness during RHoK Global December 2012.[14] Moreover, Mifos has been part of the FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 event, acting as a sponsor. One of Mifos' members, James Dailey (board member and Chief Innovation Officer), took the stage to discuss the reinvention of banking. On the first of November, Mifos Initiative also took part in the Global Islamic Microfinance Forum, held in Dubai, UAE.

Management

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President/CEO of Mifos Initiative is Edward Cable [15]

Board of directors

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Source:[16]

  • Allison Baller
  • Zaheda Bhorat
  • Min Tha Gyaw
  • Shashi Raghunandan
  • Andreas Vagelaötos
  • Edward Cable (Current CEO & President)

Previously serving Board members

  • Craig Chelius
  • Suresh Krishna (managing director of Grameen Financial Services Private Ltd)
  • Paul Maritz (Chairman of the Board and CEO of Pivotal)
  • Michael Vorburger
  • Dave Neary
  • James Dailey

Advisors to Board

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  • Diego Francisco Moncayo Miño
  • Simone Tarantino
  • Marie Valdez
  • Deepa Prahalad
  • Vincent Alimi
  • Ali Hussein Kassim

Qualifications and prizes

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  • Mifos earns high ratings on CGAP Software Listings [17]
  • Mifos won a Duke's Choice Award in 2009 for "Java Technology for the Open Source Community" [18]
  • Mifos participated in the Google Summer Of Code 2009,[19] 2010,[20] 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.
  • Mifos also came as a runner up to the 'Fintech for Good' award, coming second after Deutsche Bank – Community Hackathons.[21]
  • Mifos was shortlisted for the 11:FS Fintech for Good Award in 2024,[22]

References

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  1. ^ Microfinance: Why Open Source Means Bigger Impact
  2. ^ Grameen Foundation to Transition Mifos to Community-Led Effort
  3. ^ MIFOS.org
  4. ^ Baer, Natalie (2012-03-05). "MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Foundation Spins Off Mifos Microfinance Institution Software to Open Source Community". MicroCapital. Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
  5. ^ "Apache Fineract Graduates to Top-Level Project". Mifos Initiative. 2017-04-24. Retrieved 2024-07-19.
  6. ^ Mifos X re-recognised as Digital Public Good
  7. ^ Mifos X in DPG Registry
  8. ^ Mifos Payment Hub EE
  9. ^ Payment Hub EE in DPG Registry
  10. ^ Payment Hub EE for GovStack
  11. ^ Mifos Gazelle
  12. ^ Mifos Mobile Applications
  13. ^ "GSoC 2013 - COSM".
  14. ^ "Financial data integrating using sms communications". Random Hacks of Kindness.
  15. ^ Mifos About Us page, retrieved July 17 2025, https://mifos.org/about-us/team/
  16. ^ Mifos About Us page, retrieved Dec 4, 2025, https://mifos.org/about-us/team/
  17. ^ "Press Release on CGAP listing Mifos".
  18. ^ "Congratulations 2009 Duke's Choice Awards Winners!". 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  19. ^ "Open Source at Google, Blog entry about Mifos".
  20. ^ "Mifos news about GSoC 2010 participants".
  21. ^ Futures, Fintech (17 December 2018). "banking Technology awards 2018". banking tech. Bankingtech. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  22. ^ "Mifos shortlisted for 11:FS Fintech for good award".
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