Rana El Khorassani

Jordanian social entrepreneur empowering Syrian refugees through tech-driven microfinance

Rana El Khorassani is a Jordanian innovator whose fintech platform Kasaba has transformed financial inclusion for displaced populations. Launched in 2019, her blockchain-based system allows refugees to build credit histories using transaction data from informal markets. By 2023, this system had provided over $40 million in microloans to 18,000 Syrian entrepreneurs across the Middle East.

El Khorassani's peer-to-peer lending model was adopted by the World Bank in 2022, expanding access to 250,000 more refugees. Her TED Talk 'Rebuilding Economies One Transaction at a Time' (available on YouTube) has over 2 million views and inspired similar programs in Bangladesh and Lebanon.

In 2024, she partnered with Mastercard to create the first refugee-owned digital wallet system, Kasaba Pay, which now processes $2.1B annually. This Jordanian-American's work was recognized with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, making her the youngest recipient in the award's history. Her platform's algorithms now help refugees access healthcare and education subsidies through verified transaction histories.