Funds Will Help Unitus Enable Economic Self-Empowerment for Millions of Poor
People Worldwide
REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Unitus, an organization which
increases access to microfinance for the world's poorest people, today
announced that it has received a major grant of $2.7 million from Omidyar
Network, an investment group fostering individual self-empowerment on a global
scale.
The grant will enable Unitus to expand operations and hire key staff
members in its Redmond, Wash., and Bangalore, India, offices. With the
additional support in place, Unitus plans to form partnerships with at least
four new microfinance institutions, and to reach an additional 1 million
clients by the end of 2006. By 2015, Unitus expects to be helping 10 million
clients in India alone work their way out of poverty.
"Omidyar Network's generous commitment is tremendous validation of our
work and could not come at a better time," said Unitus President and CEO Geoff
Davis. "We have ambitious plans to grow exponentially over the next few
years. Our partnership with Omidyar Network gives us significantly greater
resources to reach our goals and bring microfinance to more of the world's
poor than ever before."
Doug Solomon, Omidyar Network's vice president of investments, said, "We
share Unitus's belief that microfinance offers a sustainable and lasting
solution for enabling the poor to lift themselves out of poverty through
economic self-empowerment. With its focus on accelerating profitable growth
and financial transparency among microfinance institutions, Unitus represents
exactly the kind of organization Omidyar Network is eager to invest in."
About Unitus
Unitus is a global microfinance accelerator that acts as a social venture
capital investor for the microfinance industry. Unitus identifies the
highest-potential microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries and
helps accelerate their growth through capital investments and capacity-
building consulting, thus empowering them to help exponentially more poor
people worldwide. In doing so, Unitus aims to demonstrate that MFIs can be
run as profitable, large-scale, poverty-focused businesses with links to local
capital markets. As of August 2005, Unitus has seven MFI partners worldwide
serving more than 449,000 poor clients. Based in Redmond, Washington, USA,
and with an office in Bangalore, India, Unitus relies on innovative financial
instruments, and the financial resources of like-minded individuals and
foundations, to fulfill its mission. For more information about Unitus,
please visit http://www.unitus.com
About Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a mission-based investment group committed to fostering
individual self-empowerment on a global scale. Established in June 2004 by
Pierre and Pam Omidyar, the Network is founded on the simple core belief that
every individual has the power to make a difference. Because we believe issues
are best addressed by the people who face them, we focus on the how, not the
what. Therefore, we fund citizen-driven models that enable individuals to
pursue what matters most to them. The Network seeks out scalable for-profits,
nonprofits, and public policy efforts that promote: equal access to
information, tools and opportunities; openness and transparency; collaboration
around shared interests; and a sense of ownership for participants. To date,
we've invested in areas such as microfinance, bottom-up media, open source
projects, and transparency in government. Omidyar Network intends for its
diverse portfolio to foster individual self-empowerment across the economic,
political, and social realms, and to catalyze a new breed of business for
which social impact directly drives profitability. We invite you to learn more
about us and the organizations we've funded at http://www.omidyar.net
Media Contacts:
Robert Lowry
Public Relations Associate
Unitus
425-881-2574
rlowry@unitus.com
Wendy Conway
Director of Communications
Omidyar Network
650-482-2534
wconway@omidyar.net
This press release distributed by PRWEB (http://www.prwebdirect.com/ ), a
service of eMediaWire.
SOURCE Unitus
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Related links:
http://www.unitus.com
CONTACT:
Robert Lowry, Public Relations Associate of
Unitus, +1-425-881-2574, or rlowry@unitus.com; or Wendy Conway,
Director of Communications of Omidyar Network, +1-650-482-2534,
or wconway@omidyar.net
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