In 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus and his colleagues started giving out tiny loans under a system which later become known as the Grameen Bank, we never imagined that some day we would be reaching hundreds of thousands, let alone three million, borrowers. But the capabilities and commitment of our staff and borrowers gave us the courage to expand boldly. We hardly noticed when we reached milestones like 100,000 borrowers, $ 1 billion lent, 2 million borrowers and so forth. Everyone predicted that the quality of the services we provided would deteriorate when we reached large numbers; yet, in reality, in many ways it improved.



In the late 1980s, we started to think of ways in which we could build on the network that our borrowers represented, in order to accelerate their progress towards a poverty-free world and also improve Bangladesh`s overall economic performance. So, in the beginning, we got involved in leasing unutilized and underutilized fishing ponds and irrigation pumps such as deep tubewells. At about the same time, we also became involved in providing training and other support to people from other third world countries who wanted to adapt the Grameen methodology.

After some initial successes in the fisheries and irrigation projects, we became interested in expanding our work by getting involved in other busines in various new sectors. By this time, carrying out all these initiatives under Grameen Bank became unwieldy, and from 1989 we began to establish new organizations. The fisheries project became the Grameen Fisheries Foundation. The irrigation project became the Grameen Krishi Foundation. The international replication and health program were put under the Grameen Trust.

As we moved forward, we gained confidence and became more and more bold in our non-banking activities. Independently from Grameen Bank ,we became involved in venture capital, the textile industry, an Internet service provider and much more. Each new initiative was incorporated in an extending organization or spun off into a new one. This became what we call the Grameen Family of Organizations.

We welcome people and organizations from all over the world to contact us and let us know how they would like to work in partnership with our existing organizations and/or propose new ideas that may lead to new business ideas which fulfill the social development objectives and organizations in the

Grameen Trust

As a result of the success of Grameen Bank in reaching and serving the poor with credit, many people and organizations began to think in Grameen`s way, and wanted to learn more about Grameen and follow Grameen`s principles in their own sphere of work. It is primarily to meet this demand that the Grameen Trust [GT] came into being in 1989.

Grameen Fund

Grameen Fund was incorporated on January 17, 1994 as a "not-for-profit" company and started operations on February 1, 1994. Its emphasis is on providing finance to ventures that are risky, technology - oriented and otherwise deprived of financing from existing formal lending institutions.

Grameen Communications

Grameen Communications, a member of Grameen family of enterprises, is a not for profit Information Technology company. It has been providing complete systems solution through developing software products and services, internet services, hardware & networking services and IT education services since its inception in 1997 under the Companies Act, 1994.

Grameen Shakti/Energy

Grameen Shakti is a not-for-profit rural power company whose purpose is to supply renewable energy to unelectrified villages in Bangladesh. GS expects not only to supply renewable energy services, but also to create employment and income-generation opportunities in rural Bangladesh.

Grameen Shikkha/Education

Grameen Shikkha is a company in the family of Grameen companies. Established in 1997 its main objectives are to promote mass education in rural areas, provide financial support in the form of loans and grants for the purpose of education, use IT for alleviation of illiteracy and evelopment of education, promote new technologies and innovate ideas and methods for development of education etc. Grameen Shikkha has been conducting Life Oriented Education Program, Pre-school/Child Development Program, Early Childhood Development Program and Arsenic Mitigation Program in various districts of Bangladesh.

Grameen Telecom

Grameen Telecom is a company dedicated to bringing the information revolution to the rural people of Bangladesh. Grameen Telecom is planning, over the next 4 years, to provide GSM 900/1100 cellular mobile phone service to 100 million rural inhabitants in 68,000 villages of Bangladesh by [1] financing 60,000 members of Grameen Bank to provide village pay phone service and [2] providing direct phones to potential subscribers.

Grameen Knitwear Limited

Grameen Knitwear Limited: The company is a 100% export oriented composite knitwear factory, located in the Export Processing Zone in Savar in the vicinity of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It has knitting, dyeing, finishing and garments production facilities. Most of the machinery and equipment have been sourced from Europe. The factory is capable to produce very high quality of different knit fabrics and garments of children, men and women. The fabrics and garments are fabric and yarn dyed 100% cotton, TC, CVC, Polyester with lycra attachement etc of various counts. The countries where the goods are currently exported are mostly Europe. The goods are exported against confirmed irrevocable letter of credit.