Unitus Labs, Unitus Impact Partner Over Livelihood Support Venture for Poor
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Unitus Labs recently announced that it will support an initiative to build income-generating opportunities for millions of people battling poverty.
Unitus Labs will partner with Unitus Impact Partners LLC (Unitus Impact), a new impact investing firm focused on livelihood acceleration for the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) in Asia and Africa, to implement this initiative.
Unitus Impact will focus on supporting livelihoods ventures with the early stage ventures that require equity or debt capital, possess potential to create improved, sustainable livelihoods at significant scale, involve approaches that enable systemic change. In addition, it will employ market-based approaches in areas such as agribusiness, microfranchising, supply chain optimization, micro enterprise financing, and job/skills training and operate in rural or urban markets in Asia (especially India) or Africa.
The strategic partnership for livelihood acceleration will include goals for fundraising, market research, investment due diligence and investment management to catalyze a new market for livelihood ventures.
Unitus Labs and Unitus Impact will share investment management fees paid by investors and any future profits generated by these investments. To ensure that there are no perceived or potential conflicts of interest, Unitus Labs board members have agreed to invest in Unitus Impact projects through charitable vehicles. Unitus Impact will announce initial project investments in the next 90 days.
Unitus Labs is a USA based non-profit organization that is focused on reducing global poverty through economic self-empowerment. Unitus Labs was founded in 2001 and is based in Seattle and Bangalore.
Unitus Impact Partners LLC (Unitus Impact) works on livelihood acceleration for low-income people at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP) in Asia (especially India) and Africa.
