Yunus Social Business (YSB), started by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus that invests in social enterprises, has provided debt of about ₹1 crore ($142,000) to Mumbai-based S4S Technologies, for working capital requirement and other expenses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
YSB, according to a press release, has also committed to provide growth support to the venture to improve performance across fund raising, management, HR, governance, sourcing, production and operations, product marketing, and social impact management.
S4S Technologies works in the area of reducing food produce wastage and improving farmer livelihoods with focus on gender inclusion. The company’s solution helps in decentralised drying of Grade B food produce using patented solar dehydaration technology.
S4S procures produce such as onions, ginger, carrots and turmeric from farmers and then provides women farmers with its drying equipment and raw produce at their homes. The women farmers dry out the raw produce as per specifications from S4S and are paid for their labour. S4S then conducts secondary processing at its central factory and sells the final dried products to large B2B retailers such as Marico and Nestle and small restaurants and catering businesses. It has worked with 200 small and marginal women farmers in Maharashtra and Odisha.