The year 2009 was an epochal one for Ujjivan, for it was in this year that Ujjivan successfully completed the “Triathlon of Microfinance” – profitability, scale and geographical diversification.

Ujjivan achieved the key milestone of profitability in 2009. The year began on a promising note with the organisation generating monthly profits consistently from January 2009, culminating in all the accumulated losses since inception being wiped out by the end of the year. Ujjivan is now a profitable enterprise, along with the successes of two other key objectives of scaling up with geographical diversifying across India .

In terms of scaling up, Ujjivan has been successful in reaching out to over 550,000 customers through 219 branches. Ujjivan has been rated as one of the fastest growing MFIs in Asia. After completing the the 18 month pilot, Ujjivan has put in place efficient and robust centralized back end processes to support this growth. The credit for this achievement belongs to the 2600+ Ujjivan team . But the key ingredient to this growth has been the committed and diligent efforts of the field staff, who are passionate about their work and proud of the fact that they are able to make a difference to customers’ lives.

Geographical diversity has been one of Ujjivan’s focus areas since inception. Today Ujjivan operates in 12 states and 79 districts, covering the length and breadth of India. Ujjivan works on a hub and spoke model, with hubs in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Pune supporting operations in the South, North, East and West regions respectively. The strategy of geographical diversification has helped de-risk the organization from local issues, while enabling nationwide outreach.

The achievement of having become profitable while scaling up with a thrust on geographical diversity is unique for an MFI. The journey to profitability has been made sweeter by the many accolades that the organization has won along the way from the Unitus Accelerator award to the Best Place to Work and most recently the Social Performance Reporting Award. After conquering the “Triathlon of Microfinance” the organization is gearing up for the marathon to reach 2,000,000 customers through 500 branches by 2012.