Unitus, Inc redirecting its efforts (Jul '10)
Unitus, Inc redirecting its efforts
(July 2, 2010) -- Unitus, Inc (Unitus), our US-based non-profit affiliate and shareholder, has announced a major strategic restructuring. Unitus has been working to alleviate poverty through the acceleration of the microfinance industry in India and elsewhere. Our friends and colleagues at Unitus have played an important catalytic role in helping the industry grow. As stated in the Unitus press release, the Unitus Board believes they have largely achieved their original goals for the organization.
The team at Unitus Capital is proud to have been incubated by Unitus and funded by a group of leading global investors. As a financially and operationally separate entity, Unitus Capital’s business – providing financial advisory and capital market services – will continue to operate as normal and to expand rapidly. We have also just this week have hired our first employee in Beijing!
Since our launch two years ago, Unitus Capital has successfully closed 20 deals directing ~US$125 million of impact capital into social businesses in Asia. Much of this has been invested into the microfinance sector in India. In response to the demand for our financial advisory services, Unitus Capital has more than quadrupled over the past two years from a team of five to 22 people, with operations in Bangalore, Hong Kong, London and Sydney.
Terry Alan Farris
CEO, Untius Capital
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Unitus Redirects Efforts from Non-Profit Microfinance Acceleration toward a Broader Array of Social Ventures
- Innovative non-profit helped shape and validate microfinance as a viable commercial activity, increase access to investment capital for working poor; with tens of billions of dollars in commercial capital now available in the microfinance industry, Unitus will refocus efforts to other scalable solutions to global poverty
- Over nearly 10 years, Unitus has directed $40 million in donations and almost $30 million in investment capital to strategic microfinance partners
- Unitus strategic partners have channeled $2 billion in loan capital to more than 12 million clients, most of whom live on a few dollars a day
- New activities will adhere to the vision of positively impacting the greatest number of the world’s poor through innovative, highly leveraged solutions that are currently not widely available in the marketplace
SEATTLE, BANGALORE and NAIROBI (July 2, 2010) – Unitus today announced that it will suspend its micro-finance acceleration activities and shift its resources and activities to areas of maximum socio-economic impact for underserved people throughout the world that have yet to attain either scale or commercial viability. After fulfilling current partner commitments, the organization will release its staff of nearly 40 individuals in its Seattle headquarters and its Bangalore, India and Nairobi, Kenya field offices. Remaining assets will be directed into new early-stage, poverty-focused philanthropic activities.
“For the past decade, Unitus has been working to increase access to capital for the working poor, under the central premise that this vast, underserved segment of the world’s population was a good investment and could be well-served by commercial capital providers,” said Joseph Grenny, chair of the board for Unitus. “We are gratified that this core belief has been validated—capital markets have embraced microfinance to the extent that there are tens of billions of dollars in microfinance capital now available annually, with additional providers entering the marketplace at an aggressive clip. We now feel that there is greater need for our capital and energy in other areas—which we are currently exploring—aligned with our overarching mission of alleviating poverty through opportunity.”
Since its launch in 2001, non-profit Unitus has played a significant role in the development of viable business models for microfinance that have been instrumental in attracting a host of commercial lenders and investors to what was previously a significantly underserved marketplace. The organization employed rigorous due diligence to identify microfinance institutions (MFIs) that could serve as strategic partners in India, Southeast Asia, East Africa and Latin America. Unitus then helped accelerate the development and growth of these MFIs through the deployment of grants, guarantees, “catalytic” equity and debt capital, and strategic/operational consulting.
To achieve its demonstration goal, Unitus also started and spun off two groundbreaking microfinance-oriented organizations that helped further solidify the viability of microfinance as a commercial business model, both of which continue to grow and evolve: the Unitus Equity Fund (now managed by Elevar Equity), a private equity fund; and Unitus Capital, a boutique investment bank.
"The fact that we have become largely unnecessary in the microfinance arena is fantastic news and is a tribute to our generous, enlightened donors and the phenomenal staff at Unitus, who worked tirelessly to validate and refine the microfinance model, and advance the operations of our partners,” said Ed Bland, president and COO for Unitus. “Brigit Helms, our outgoing CEO, merits our gratitude for her outstanding leadership in surveying the global socio-economic landscape, evaluating future options for Unitus and working with the staff to assure that our partners are on solid footing. Outgoing members of the Unitus team can now leave with the assurance that they have contributed to a tremendous legacy of success here, prepared to make a continuing positive difference in the world.”
As Unitus transitions away from microfinance to other strategic areas, Geoff Woolley, a former Unitus board member, will serve as future CEO for the reinvented organization. Bland will remain in his role as acting President and COO. Helms will serve as a key advisor during the organization’s transition. The Unitus Board and executive team are currently considering various strategic opportunities, with the goal to maximize the socio-economic impact for those currently not being served in today’s marketplace.
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Press Contact
David Parkinson
Unitus Public Relations
801.971.2450
david@methodcommunications.com
