Start-up Fund by Yunus Albania
Yunus Albania began to operate in April 2012 with the support of the Albanian National Government and at the beginning of 2013 was established the Yunus Social Business (YSB) Fund Albania, being the first social business fund in the Balkans.
“Yunus Social Business – Global Initiatives” is a social accelerator that incubates and finances local entrepreneurs to build solutions from ground-up. It is co-founded by the Nobel Laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus, with local teams of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bankers and consultants. Its headquarters are in Germany, and it has local offices in 7 other countries (including Albania) and activities in many more countries. Since 2011, this global initiative has deployed over 7 million USD to social businesses in different countries, supporting over 400 entrepreneurs and positively impacting lives of more than 200,000 persons.
Since July 2015, following the request from various partners, YSB Albania has become YSB Balkans, expanding its activities and opening the Accelerator Program and investment opportunities also to the other Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). All these countries face significant and almost similar social challenges and, despite improvements in the recent years, have yet an underdeveloped ecosystem for startups and even more so for social business startups. We think that YSB’s experience both in Albania and around the world will be very valuable in fostering entrepreneurship and social business initiatives in these countries.
For more information see the link: https://www.balkanimpact.com/