Yunus Social Business (YSB) is an impact-first organisation with a non-profit impact-investing arm, Yunus Funds, and a corporate social-innovation consulting arm, Yunus Corporate Innovation. Both business units are based on furthering the concept of social business, as developed by YSB Co-founder and Chairman Professor Muhammad Yunus.
YSB was co-founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Saskia Bruysten and Sophie Eisenmann in 2011. Its stated mission is to "harness the power of business to end poverty and the climate crisis."
Background
History of social business
Prior to co-founding Yunus Social Business, Muhammad Yunus pioneered the field of micro-finance through Grameen Bank in his home country of Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank gained international acclaim when they jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize for establishing micro-finance and thus revealing a new means of tackling poverty. Grameen Bank became the first of several social businesses that Muhammad Yunus founded. With the term social business, Prof Yunus' approach was to take social and climate problems and create financially-sustainable business solutions.
After the Grameen Bank was established, Muhammad Yunus began using the social-business approach to build other social businesses in Bangladesh. These included Grameen Shakti, a low-cost renewable-energy provider, and Grameen Eyecare Hospital, which provides health services at an affordable rate to low-income and less privileged populations.
Muhammad Yunus also began to create social-business joint ventures with corporations that were interested in bringing social value and innovation to their companies through the social-business mindset. One example was the French FMCG company Danone, with which Muhammad Yunus co-founded Grameen Danone Foods. The joint venture produced nutrition-enriched yoghurt at a minimal price to bring vital nutrients to underprivileged children in Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus also worked on social-business joint ventures with BASF, Intel, Uniqlo, Euglena and G. Japan Sunpower Auto Limited.
Yunus Social Business history
In 2008, Muhammad Yunus and future YSB co-founder Saskia Bruysten met at the London School of Economics, where Muhammad Yunus was giving a talk on the promise of social business. Inspired by the concept, Bruysten approached Muhammad Yunus after the talk and they exchanged contact information. This chance encounter led the former management consultant Bruysten to visit some of Muhammad Yunus' social businesses in Bangladesh. Bruysten then started setting up Grameen Creative Lab together with a German entrepreneur to promote the idea of social business, where her former BCG colleague Sophie Eisenmann later joined. In 2011, the trio agreed to co-found Yunus Social Business with the aim of supporting the development of social businesses in countries beyond Bangladesh.
Yunus Funds
Yunus Funds is the non-profit impact-investing arm of Yunus Social Business. It provides patient loans and post-investment support to social businesses in Brazil, Colombia, India, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Yunus Funds covers the sectors Agriculture and Livelihoods, Health and Sanitation, Education and Training and Energy and Environment. It supports social businesses that are early- to growth-stage.
Examples of social businesses financed by YSB
Tugende
Tugende is a social business based in Uganda that offers motorcycle-taxi-drivers (boda boda drivers) the opportunity to rent their bike at an affordable rate and ultimately own their own motorcycle. After the bike has been fully paid off within 12-18 months, their daily incomes double on average from 5 USD to 10 USD. As of 2022, Tugende has served 52,000 customers. Yunus Social Business provided financing to Tugende in 2017. In 2021, Tugende went on to raise USD 9.9 million in Series A funding.
Impact Water
Impact Water is a social business based in Uganda that provides affordable water-purification systems to schools, reducing the risks of water-borne diseases for children who attend the schools. As of 2022, Impact Water has installed water-purification systems at 32,517 schools, reaching 14.3 million students with safe drinking water. Impact Water entered YSB's portfolio in 2015. Impact Water paid off its loan and left the YSB portfolio in 2022.
Yunus Corporate Innovation
Yunus Corporate Innovation is the corporate social-innovation consulting arm of Yunus Social Business.