Munich, 28 April 2010 – Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner from Bangladesh, has a vision: to make poverty history by 2030. This vision is to become reality with his concept of Social Business. Scout24, one of the leading corporate groups of online marketplaces in Europe, has been supporting the start of the “Grameen Creative Lab” (GCL) pro bono as a partner, and built the internationally operating office’s Website with a team of volunteer members of staff: http://www.grameencreativelab.com/.

“The aim of the Grameen Creative Lab Website is to convey the idea of Social Business to as many companies, entrepreneurs and backers throughout the world as possible, and to provide a platform of information and for interaction”, says Prof. Muhammad Yunus.

The idea of Social Business

Social Businesses work like traditional companies, but their sole function is to solve social problems like poverty or unemployment; they cover their own costs and do not pay out any dividends. These remain in the company, where they are immediately re-invested. The business model is the multi-award-winning Grameen Bank founded by Yunus. The aim of the Wiesbaden-based Grameen Creative Lab is to promote the incorporation and organisation of Social Businesses worldwide, and to advise companies, governments and NGOs. The Grameen Creative Lab itself operates as a Social Business.

Scout24’s commitment

“When I heard Professor Yunus speak for the first time at a conference, I was inspired. Social Business requires entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and passion – that’s right up our street”, says Dr. Martin Enderle, CEO of the Scout24 Group.

When it became obvious that the newly-founded GCL had no resources to create an adequate Website, Scout24 spontaneously made a complete team of developers available through its subsidiary ImmobilienScout24 to build the Website. Scout24 has also taken on the training, project management, server capacity and servicing of the Web platform in close co-operation with Grameen.

“We are committed to helping the idea of Social Business catch on. We can do that best with our most valuable resource: our employees’ know-how and personal initiative”, Enderle explains. The plan is to press ahead in a second stage with the interlinking of Social Business ideas on a concept and project level, and to build up an online community.

Scout24 is one of Europe's leading groups of companies for online market places. The seven marketplaces of the Scout24 Group, AutoScout24, ElectronicScout24, FinanceScout24, FriendScout24, ImmobilienScout24, JobScout24, TravelScout24 and the portal Jobs.de are present in 18 countries. As a strong partner, Scout supports its customers in important decisions, in particular in the fields of housing, mobility, employment, partnership and finance.

Every month, around eight million Internet users place their confidence in the offerings provided by the Scout24 Group, which is a part of the Deutsche Telekom Group. Further information is available under www.scout24.com.