Grameen Fund

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Background

Grameen Bank's highly successful and Nobel Peace Prize winning microcredit program for the poor who are predominantly women is known worldwide. To realize its long-term developmental objectives, a mechanism to provide high volume risk capital was required. The Bank encountered many ideas, technologies and approaches that can lead to business which are economically compelling and socially progressive and do not fall within the scope of Grameen Bank's initial objectives of providing microcredit to the very poor. Thus a mechanism became necessary to back the commercially potential but untested businesses and manufacturing concerns that can help propel the growth of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. Grameen Fund was established in 1994 as a not-for-profit Company in Bangladesh to fill this risk capital gap for ventures located within Bangladesh only that promise good return on equity investments as well as direct and indirect employment generation.

Grameen Fund functions under the overall supervision of a Board of Directors which is headed by Professor Muhammad, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2006.

Objectives

To provide equity finance to the entrepreneurs without capacity to mobilize capital and/or collateral trying to setup innovative projects which holds promise for future growth and have direct or indirect impact on poverty alleviation, with preference to businesses concentrating in information and communication technologies and bio-engineering;

To provide loans, equity or both to risky ventures using untested technology and/or producing untested products, either to new companies or existing companies for balancing, modernization or expansion;

To assist in management buy-ins or buy-outs of existing companies needing finance and management support, provided that activities/products of such companies are socially desirable and bring benefits to the poor; and

To promote or develop enterprises having prospects for export or import substitution that will use indigenous raw materials, provide extensive employment to the rural poor and/or help upgrade the skills of the rural or urban poor.