Two of Melbourne’s most successful startup founders have joined forces to back climate-focused fintech, Bloom Impact Investing.
Euphemia, the family office of Up co-founder Dominic Pym, together with Envato founders Collis and Cyan Ta’eed led a seed round of $525,000, bringing industry knowledge to help scale Bloom’s already growing mobile investment app and customer base. The funds will be used to hire one full-time business development resource, improve operations and grow the community.
In addition to the raise, Bloom has hit a key milestone reaching $1.6 million funds under management and has appointed former FutureSuper founder Adam Verwey as its Executive Director. He will lead Bloom’s community, partnerships and operations – to boost the company’s ability to deliver its intended impact on planet and people.
Founded in 2019, Bloom Impact Investing is focussed on disrupting and democratising the impact investing market, by making unlisted green investments such as solar and wind farms widely accessible.
Customers can invest from as little as $100, with no brokerage fees. Trusts and companies can also invest for a minimum of $5,000.
It was launched by millennials Camille Socquet-Clerc and Bertrand Caron who wanted to prove generating a return and saving the planet aren’t mutually exclusive. The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia estimates that the impact investing market in Australia will grow five-fold from $20 billion today to $100 billion within five years.
“I wanted to invest in sustainable and climate positive investments, but most opportunities were restricted to wholesale and institutional investors by buying into individual stocks,” Bloom Impact Investing co-founder and CEO Camille Socquet-Clerc said.
“I saw an opportunity to create an avenue for people like me who wanted to invest, but who didn’t have $50,000 to spare and endless amounts of free time to research which companies would deliver the best returns and genuine climate impact.”
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Ms Socquet-Clerc said this was the first time Australians had the opportunity to invest in these types of companies and private infrastructure projects, within a diversified and liquid portfolio.
“We’ve created a diversified and liquid portfolio to allow all Australians to invest in the clean energy transition and benefit from it” she said.
“In simple terms, our platform doesn’t put all our customers’ eggs in one basket, nor do we lock their money away for long periods of time. We invest in tangible companies and infrastructure projects covering over 50 different climate solutions that make real, measurable climate impact.
“Due to the sheer amount of greenwashing in financial services, this proved to be more of a challenge than we initially anticipated. It has forced us to apply a rigorous scientific method to our investment decisions. This means going much further than investing in a couple of solar and wind stocks and supporting solutions with deep decarbonisation potential across all industries such as geothermal energy, wetland protection, metal recycling, or low-carbon cement.”
Commenting on the raise, co-founder and director of Euphemia Dominic Pym said: “Australians are acutely aware of the climate crisis and Bloom helps put the power back in their hands by investing in the industries and solutions addressing the climate crisis today.”
“Camille is a remarkable founder and climate leader. She has assembled a strong team to fuel the company’s growth in the marketplace.”
Having previously funded Bloom in its pre-seed round, Collis and Cyan Ta’eed returned to co-lead this raise.
Chairperson of Envato, Collis Ta’eed said: “We’ve been really impressed to see how much the Bloom team have done in just one short year, launching a product, attracting everyday Australians to collectively invest over $1.6m, and building out a portfolio of consequential and impactful investments”
Source: FinExtra