Yunus Social Business

About us

Yunus Social Business (YSB) helps create social businesses around the world.
YSB runs as social business itself by setting up incubator funds and providing advisory services to companies, governments, foundations and NGOs.
A Social Business is a company created for social benefit rather than private profit. Like an NGO, it has a social or environmental mission, but like a business, it generates its own revenues to cover its costs. Investors may recoup their initial investment, but all further profits are reinvested for growth and innovation, or to seed new social business ventures. In this way, Social Business introduces an additional business model to capitalism where serving society is the sole objective of the company. Since social businesses have to compete in the free market to provide their goods or services, they are efficient and effective at meeting customer needs. Over the last 30 years, Professor Yunus has pioneered more than 40 social businesses in Bangladesh alone — some of them are among the largest companies in the country. Today, the concept is broadly acknowledged by the UN, EU, multinational corporations and academic institutions.
YSB applies business approaches to the world of social development. It has developed an innovative Incubator Fund methodology which bridges the gap between social businesses and social investors and donors. While the Incubator searches, coaches and selects social businesses, the Fund provides debt and equity financing to the businesses after a thorough due diligence process.