San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 20, 2015
Unitus Impact (http://unitusimpact.com), a venture capital firm focused on improving the livelihoods of the working poor, announced today that its Livelihood Impact Fund has made investments into Micro Benefits (http://www.microbenefits.com) and MobiVi (http://icarebenefits.com), companies building innovative employee-benefit delivery platforms for factory workers in Asia.
Beau Seil, Managing Partner of Unitus Impact, noted that “[Unitus] is excited to support two visionary entrepreneurs as they scale innovative companies working to set a new benchmark for the treatment of low-income factory workers in Asia.”
Over the next three years, these companies expect to provide millions of low-income factory workers with access to a suite of employee benefits.
In Vietnam, a country that employs roughly 10 million factory workers, less than 2% of the population has access to a credit card or formal financial services. MobiVi partners with multinational companies and their factories to provide workers with low-cost installment finance to purchase important life-enhancing products (e.g., mobile phones, basic appliances). MobiVi’s clients have already purchased thousands of items and accessed thousands of low-cost loans using their employment status as the primary credit qualifier.
“Unitus Impact’s investment and strategic support has helped solidify partnerships with large multinational clients and scale our platform to provide over three hundred thousand factory workers with access to life-enhancing products and financial services,” said MobiVi CEO Trung Dung.
In China, a majority of the country’s 150 million factory workers lack access to employee benefits and affordable, high-quality skills training opportunities that foster upward economic mobility. Furthermore, most companies suffer from costly employee turnover rates, as high as 15% per month. To address these challenges, Micro Benefits offers an employee engagement platform including a discount program designed to boost employees’ purchasing power, vocational and leadership training programs, and an interactive social media platform that allows employees to directly communicate with co-workers and HR departments. Through its proprietary mobile app and delivery platform, Micro Benefits delivers benefits to over 100,000 thousand workers, and anticipates reaching a few hundred thousand workers by the end of 2015.
“Unitus Impact has been integral in the development, deployment, and growth of Micro Benefits’ unique business model and mobile-based delivery platform that offers important employee benefits and fosters stronger engagement between workers, employers, and the global brands with which they engage,” said Micro Benefits CEO Tyler Lyman.
About Unitus Impact
Unitus Impact is a venture capital firm that invests in scalable companies working to increase incomes and improve the livelihoods of the working poor in Asia’s fastest growing economies. With investments in companies in China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, the Livelihood Impact Fund aims to support the growth of livelihood companies in India and SE Asia that link underserved populations to formal markets, engage the working poor as suppliers or distributors, build innovative supply chain or distribution platforms, and provide underserved consumers with products and services that improve their lives, while generating strong financial returns for its investors.