Unitus, a non-profit microfinance investment fund with assets of $7,100,000 as of August 2004, announced a partnership with FIS Empresa Social of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through this agreement Unitus will provide FIS with $100,000 in grants and a $500,000 debt facility, as well as capacity-building consulting services. Unitus provides a variety of services to micro-lenders throughout the world. The firm currently has eight partners serving about 540,000 clients in India, Kenya, Mexico and Argentina.
Founded in 1999 as the microfinance arm of non-governmental organization (NGO) El Ceibal, FIS became an independent microfinance institution in 2005. FIS is now a for-profit institution which receives foreign and domestic equity investments. FIS has a current client base of 3,000 and, with this boost from Unitus, projects expansion of MFI services to more than 55,000 clients by 2009. No additional financial data on FIS is available at this time.
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