Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives

Yunus Social Business ( YSB ) is a social business venture capital fund and consulting company that initiates global development programs for social businesses and manages. As part of the international Implementierungsarms for formulated by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus concept of social business support and finance YSB the development of social businesses through local, national incubators funds. The YSB currently operates locally in the countries of Albania, Brazil, Haiti, Togo and Tunisia and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main / Germany with a team of 22 people.

History

The YSB was co-founded by Nobel Laureate and Professor Muhammad Yunus as a spin -off of the Grameen Creative Lab establishing and supporting social businesses outside of Bangladesh, 2011. Some of the activities of YSB, for example, the program in Haiti were initiated under the name Grameen Creative Lab. The approach of YSB is, methodological approaches and best practices from the consulting firm, the venture capital industry and the international development assistance to use and adapt Businesses for working with Social.

Social Business Incubator Fund

The methodology of the YSB incubator fund connects the practice of classic venture capital industry with knowledge and experience in the development sector. The methodology provides local social entrepreneurs and their teams implementing support for the incubation and financing their activities. Typical target projects include owner - managed company; NGOs who want to convert income-generating activities in a social business; or large companies, which are activities in search of more sustainable approaches to the implementation of their corporate social responsibility.

Country initiatives

The incubator fund of YSB is currently active in the two countries, Haiti and Albania. The YSB currently established similar structures in the countries of Brazil, Togo and Tunisia.

YSB Haiti

With local representation in Port -au -Prince, Haiti YSB incubated currently social businesses in the three strategic areas of education and vocational training, agriculture and the environment, and nutrition.

The YSB invested in a vocational training center in Port -au -Prince, which is currently 950 students enrolled formed with courses in entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

The YSB also invested in three poultry farms and a bakery, aiming to ensure access to food and daily consumer goods in a country that is heavily dependent on imports for basic food and raw materials. The profits of these social businesses be used for subsidizing seven local schools that educate 900 children in remote rural areas.

YSB also invested in a jatropha plantation, securing the income of 200 farmers. The planting of Jatropha prevents soil erosion, while the Jatropha plant is processed into biofuel and animal feed.

YSB Albania

The YSB Albania began the social business activities in Albania in April 2012. Identified with a local team in Tirana and developed the YSB Albania incubator, the first social businesses in the country. The first investments in social businesses have been released in the first quarter of 2013. YSB Albania also operates a national Social Business Plan Competition and joint activities with several development agencies, local authorities and universities to encourage the creation of social businesses.

The Albanian government supports the initiative decisively by the newly public ' Agency for the Support of Social Business ' ( Nxitja e Biznesit Social, NBS).

YSB Africa

The YSB began in December 2012 in Africa in collaboration with the African Development Bank ( AfDB) Department of Human Development ( OSHD ) and is financed by a Policy and Human Resource Development Grant of Japan ( PHRDG ) the ' Holistic Social Business Movement '. As part of this initiative YSB and AfDB are national conferences in the countries of Tunisia, Togo and Uganda raise awareness of social business and establish national 2013 Social Business Incubators funds in the second half of the connector. The ' National Conference on Social Business ' was held in Tunisia in March 2013 at the IHEC in Carthage, Tunisia instead.