Success Stories: Fintech - August 2021

In success stories, we profile some of the key stories in Fintech and payments this month, focusing on areas of growth, resilience and innovation.

Here’s this month’s dose of positivity, featuring explosive growth in the green sector, Australian sustainable spending initiatives, a revolution for family finance, and new market place initiatives for Indian agriculture.

Green Fintech Frenzy

Aspiration, SNIB, NatWest and Marqeta commit to a greener future

Green Fintech is dominating financial news this month with numerous stories of climate friendly and sustainable business endeavors.

Aspiration, the socially conscious US neobank, is set to go public in a $2.3 billion merger with a special purpose acquisition company. Backed by Hollywood elites such as Robert Downey JR and Leonardo Di Caprio, the bank is focused on helping customers go green.

Aspiration offers a range of banking services, credit cards and other investment products that help customers keep their deposits out of fossil fuels. These systems automatically plant trees with every card purchase, and track business and personal 'Planet & People' impact scores so consumers can shop with a conscience.

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has committed £50m to woodland management, supporting widescale creation and management of Scotland’s forest. The project aims to boost biodiversity, improve air quality and reduce soil erosion. It is estimated the newly forested areas could capture up to 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 over the next 20 years.

Eilidh Mactaggart, CEO of the SNIB, said: “The bank’s cornerstone investment is designed to encourage other investors to follow us into this new type of forestry fund. We believe this opportunity to be an excellent fit for the bank’s ambition to lead the way on innovative mission aligned investments.”

Natwest is partnering with Spotify this month in order to highlight businesses that have championed climate change in the UK. The two companies will work with Forest Carbon to offset carbon emissions generated by the production of the podcast.

Marqeta’s card issuing platform will is offering its customers the choice to issue physical cards made from 43 percent recycled material, helping to reduce the environmental impact of plastic cards. Marqeta also entered into a partnership with social enterprise rePurpose Global to further reduce its plastic footprint. This agreement is expected to offset the creation of roughly 34 million cards.

Sustainable Spending Down Under

Acacia championing transparent sustainable money management

Australian startup Acacia is launching a new money management app that incorporates open banking and data analytics to give users insight into their carbon footprint and environmental impact.

Utilising micro-service and cloud-based technology architecture, the app offers users sustainable analysis of the environmental impact of their financial and energy arrangements.

"Australians are changing the way they make their purchasing choices and the way they manage their money” says CEO Anil Sagaram. “They are moving away from traditional banking and there is growing interest in not just doing well, but also doing good.

Hapi Hopes For Future Families

Hapi’s powerful new tool simplifies future family finance.

UK startup Hapi has created a new free to download app designed to help parents plan and invest for their children’s future.

Through the app parents can open a Junior stocks & shares ISA or a general investment account to help them plan and afford future expenses such as university fees, school fees or even first home deposits.

The app suggests monthly payments based on criteria such as the child’s age, investment and goal selected, and will keep parents informed of their progress over time. Each account also has a unique link that allows family, friends or anyone else to contribute directly to the child’s account.

Fintech fuels farming in india

BPC’s Marketplace Initiative to Improve Farmers’ Livelihood

Safal Fasal, (meaning ‘successful harvest’ in Hindi), is a marketplace initiative by BPC and a digital platform that aims to provide high-tech access to finance, buyers, networking, and risk-management tools.

The aim behind this initiative was not only to provide technology but education. Leading Indian agritech companies, creditors and industry players have come together in partnership with BPC to provide Indian farmers with sufficient resources to improve their financial literacy, empowering them to lift themselves within the economy.

In this way the Safal Fasal Marketplace can be viewed as a great medium between buyers and sellers, successfully transit knowledge, by creating value. When Safal Fasal was first launched in Lucknow, it had an immediate on-boarding of 30,000 farmers, making a huge societal difference in the agricultural sector.

---

Explore The Conexus Group

Is your business the next success story? The Conexus Group’s growth-focused services include recruitment, training, consulting and M&A advisory services. Learn more