Search the web, save the environment! Ecosia is a CO2-neutral search engine that donates 80% of its income to a tree planting program in Brazil.  There are all kinds of problems in their modern world that need fixing. At Ecosia, they want to do their share to find and support innovative solutions to as many of these problems as they can. As part of their mission to cultivate a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable world, they want to support the planting of one million new trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest by August 2014.

Ecosia

World Fund is a European Climate Tech VC fund investing in startups that contribute to solving the climate crisis. It focuses on the key emitting sectors Energy, Food & Agriculture, Manufacturing, Buildings, and Transport. World Fund aims to fill two significant investment gaps for climate tech: when tech goes from lab to market and when it leaves the pilot stage to scale. World Fund will invest from Seed to Series B stage. World Fund was established by Daria Saharova, Danijel Višević, Craig Douglas, Christian Kroll, and Tim Schumacher.

World Fund

EQT Ventures is a European VC fund with just over €2.3 billion in total capital raised. EQT Ventures I launched in May 2016, with commitments totaling €566 million and a simple mission - to be the kind of VC the team would have liked to have had on their own startup journeys. Recognizing that building and growing a company takes more than just capital, the EQT Ventures team provides founders with support and advice throughout different stages of growth. EQT Ventures doesn't focus on particular markets or industries, but on bold and ambitious founders who have the grit and determination to build global success stories. EQT Ventures II launched in November 2019, with commitments totaling €660 million. EQT Ventures III launched in 2022, with commitments totaling €1.1 billion, making it the biggest European Venture Capital fund committed to early-stage tech startups. The EQT Ventures team is based across six offices in London, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Paris, and San Francisco, taking a locals-with-locals approach and supporting founders on the ground. Motherbrain, EQT Ventures'  in-house-developed artificial intelligence (AI) platform, ensures the team has a data-driven approach and has driven more than $100 million in portfolio company investments.

EQT Ventures

Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy and includes publicly listed UiPath, Wise, and unicorns Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, and wefox along with fast-growing businesses such as Grover, viz.ai and Ezra.  Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent. Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support, and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent.

Seedcamp

Episode1 Ventures is a London based venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in the UK. It was created with a mixture of public and private money, including backing from a number of entrepreneurs including Alex Chesterman of Zoopla Property Group. It is one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds – set up to support fund managers who invest in small, high-growth businesses. The £12.5 million of private investment was matched with £25 million of public money. Episode 1 Ventures invests in seed and Series A rounds of up to £2m in software-driven businesses with the potential to transform industries. They’ve been entrepreneurs theirselves so provide a frank and fast approach to investing and they like to play a very hands-on supportive role in growing the businesses they back. They look for entrepreneurs with relevant experience ambitious to change their sector. They like to see that they can hire world-class talent and delegate to them effectively, and that they really know the customers and understand the problem. They also like entrepreneurs that are data-driven. But above all they like people with passion and ambition, that can execute at speed and overcome significant hurdles along the way. They are building a portfolio of companies that are using software technology to disrupt their chosen marketplaces. It is a diverse group across a range of industries, but with two common themes – a great founder and a big market.  They also like to invest once a company has launched their product and has some clients they can reference. Revenues are usually from zero to £50k per month when they first invest. They like to play an active role in helping the companies that they invest in, at least until their companies have secured one or more later financing rounds. They want to help entrepreneurs turn their early stage ventures into fast growing companies built to grow into significant and valuable entities.  They see every investment as a partnership. Indeed, they share their office with a number of portfolio companies so they work very closely with them.

Episode 1

Micro VC supporting outstanding technology entrepreneurs across the globe.

Discovery Ventures

Valar Ventures is a venture capital firm backed by Peter Thiel. Valar partners with entrepreneurs globally and believes that an increasing number of transformative technology companies will be started outside of Silicon Valley, and that the founders of those companies will benefit from having a partner that understands their unique challenges and opportunities.

Valar Ventures

TreeCard

Treecard is a fullstack green finance platform, allowing consumers to spend, save and invest responsibly. They are the exclusive finance partner of Ecosia, and their first product is a wooden payment card that funds reforestation via the interchange fees generated.

Treecard is a climate-conscious digital money app that aims to make sustainable living simple. Founded in October 2020 by British entrepreneur Jamie Cox, Treecard offers a wooden debit card made from recycled materials and a spending platform that incentivizes eco-friendly behavior. Through a partnership with the search engine Ecosia, Treecard plants trees on behalf of its users by donating 80% of the interchange fees earned from merchant transactions. As of November 2022, Treecard had planted over 200,000 trees worldwide.

Sustainable living, made simple.

Peter Thiel's VC fund backs TreeCard, a fintech that plants trees when you spend

Aiming to plant trees with card payments, London's TreeCard raises $23 million

Green fintech startup Treecard raises €22 million so you can plant trees as you spend

On EQT Ventures’ investment in Treecard, building the leading green finance brand

TreeCard raises £19m in Series A backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures

Read Customer Service Reviews of treecard.org

Green FinTech TreeCard Raises $23M

What you need to know about: Tred › Good With Money

Embedding environmental, social, and corporate governance factors into investments

Sustainable Finance

Treecard

TreeCard - planting trees as you spend

Treecard is a climate-conscious digital money app that aims to make sustainable living simple. Founded in October 2020 by British entrepreneur Jamie Cox, Treecard offers a wooden debit card made from recycled materials and a spending platform that incentivizes eco-friendly behavior. Through a partnership with the search engine Ecosia, Treecard plants trees on behalf of its users by donating 80% of the interchange fees earned from merchant transactions. As of November 2022, Treecard had planted over 200,000 trees worldwide.
The Treecard app gamifies sustainability by allowing users to visualize their personal forest growth based on spending activity. It rewards users with environment-focused perks like sustainable travel experiences and eco-friendly discounts. The app also tracks users' carbon footprints and provides insights to help them reduce their environmental impact. Treecard accounts do not fund fossil fuel investments or deforestation projects.
In November 2022, Treecard raised USD 23 million in Series A funding led by Valar Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. This investment will support Treecard's US and European expansion plans, team growth, and product development ahead of an official launch in 2023. Treecard's ambition is to become an "environmental super app" enabling sustainable lifestyles across all aspects.

Starling Bank is a digital, mobile-only bank based in the UK, offering personal and business accounts. Founded in 2014 by former Allied Irish Banks COO Anne Boden, Starling received its banking license from regulators in July 2016. The bank operates without any physical branches and provides services entirely through its mobile app.
Starling offers various personal account options, including current accounts, joint accounts, euro accounts, and teen accounts. Its multi-currency feature allows customers to hold, send, and receive euros for free, with a 0.4% conversion fee for foreign transactions. The app provides real-time spending insights, categorized expenses, budgeting tools, and the ability to set aside money in "Virtual Change Jars." Customers can also apply for overdrafts and loans through the app.
For businesses, Starling offers digital business accounts with powerful money management tools, invoicing, tax assessment, and integration with accounting software. Businesses can also hold and transact in euros and US dollars through dedicated currency accounts.
Starling facilitates international money transfers to 36 countries in 20 currencies, with competitive exchange rates and fees. Customers can opt for direct SWIFT bank-to-bank transfers for a flat fee of GBP 5.50.
In May 2023, Starling Bank reported a record pre-tax profit of GBP 195 million, a sixfold increase from the previous year. Anne Boden stepped down as CEO but remains a non-executive director and shareholder.

Starling Bank

Aspiration is a fintech company that offers a suite of green financial services products aimed at empowering individuals and businesses to combat climate change through their everyday spending and saving activities. The company provides sustainable checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts that are fossil fuel-free and enable customers to track their personal sustainability scores.
Aspiration's key product is the Aspiration Spend & Save account, which offers a competitive 3.00% annual percentage yield (APY) on balances up to USD 10,000 as of October 2022. This cash management account comes with a debit card, mobile check deposit, bill pay, and up to USD 2 million in FDIC insurance coverage. Aspiration also has the Redwood Fund and Redwood IRA, investment products focused on sustainable companies committed to ethnic diversity, gender diversity, ethical practices, and addressing climate change.
In April 2024, Aspiration's consumer financial services brand was spun off as a separate company called Mission Financial Partners, led by CEO Tim Newell. This move allowed Aspiration to concentrate on serving businesses through its carbon credit offerings while Mission Financial Partners focused on expanding its suite of climate-friendly consumer products like banking, credit, lending, investment, and insurance solutions. A key aspect of Aspiration's approach is planting trees, with the company claiming to have supported the planting of over 100 million trees as of April 2024.

Aspiration

Classy is a cloud-based fundraising platform offering a comprehensive suite of tools to help nonprofits create engaging online donation experiences and manage fundraising campaigns effectively. Its key features include customizable donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities, crowdfunding campaigns, event ticketing, and integration with popular CRM systems like Salesforce.
Classy's platform provides nonprofits with the ability to design branded, mobile-responsive donation forms and fundraising pages. Organizations can accept one-time and recurring donations, as well as process payments through multiple gateways, including PayPal, Venmo, and credit cards. The platform's peer-to-peer fundraising tools empower supporters to create personal fundraising pages and share them across social media platforms, fostering a sense of community and friendly competition through features like fundraising leaderboards and team fundraising goals.
For events, Classy offers event registration, ticketing, and attendee management functionalities, streamlining the process of organizing and promoting fundraising events. The platform also supports crowdfunding campaigns, enabling nonprofits to tap into this popular form of online giving.
Classy's pricing model consists of an annual subscription fee and transaction fees for each donation processed through the platform. As of May 2024, the transaction fees stand at 2.4% + USD 0.30 for credit cards and 2.5% + USD 0.30 for PayPal/Venmo.
Key customers and partnerships
Classy has been widely adopted by nonprofits of various sizes and causes, facilitating the raising of tens of thousands of dollars for their missions. The platform has garnered praise for its user-friendly interface, robust features, and seamless integration capabilities with popular tools like Salesforce and Facebook.
Classy's partnership with Facebook has been particularly noteworthy, enabling nonprofits to leverage the social media platform's reach for peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns. This integration has streamlined the process for volunteers and supporters to raise funds on behalf of the organizations they support.

Classy

Tandem Bank is a digital challenger bank based in the UK, focused on providing environmentally-friendly financial products and services. The bank aims to help customers reduce their carbon footprint while offering competitive savings accounts, mortgages, personal loans, and home improvement financing options.
Tandem utilizes open banking technology to securely connect with customers' existing bank accounts, allowing seamless transfers into their Tandem savings accounts. The bank offers instant access savings accounts with variable interest rates up to 4.90% AER as of April 2024, as well as fixed-term savings accounts ranging from one to three years with interest rates up to 5.07% AER.
In addition to savings products, Tandem provides residential and buy-to-let mortgages, with discounts for energy-efficient properties based on their EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) ratings. The bank also offers personal loans, home loans for expenses like renovations or debt consolidation, and motor finance for used vehicles through approved dealerships.
Tandem's "Green Lending" initiatives allocate a portion of customer deposits toward financing eco-friendly home improvements such as solar panel installations and energy-efficient window replacements. In 2023, the bank facilitated over GBP 523 million in green home improvement lending, contributing to the avoidance of 74,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In January 2022, Tandem acquired the consumer lender Oplo, further expanding its product offerings and solidifying its position as a "fairer, greener digital bank" in the UK market. The bank discontinued its automatic savings features in January 2021 to concentrate on developing its green banking strategy.

Tandem

Cushon is a London-based fintech company founded in 2014 that offers workplace savings and investment products, including ISAs, investment accounts, and pensions. Its key offerings include a workplace ISA, master trust pension, junior and lifetime ISAs, and a general investment account. Cushon's products are designed to be simple and user-friendly, with a mobile app that provides a personalized experience and helps engage savers with their financial goals.
Cushon's unique selling point is the "Net Zero Now" pension, launched in January 2021, which is claimed to be the world's first net zero pension. This pension aims to minimize carbon emissions from investments as much as possible and offsets any remaining emissions through carbon offsetting projects. As of April 2022, Cushon had approximately GBP 1.7 billion in assets under management, making it the fifth largest master trust pension provider in the UK. By February 2023, its assets under management had grown to GBP 1.85 billion.
In February 2023, NatWest Group acquired an 85% stake in Cushon for GBP 144 million, with the remaining equity retained by Cushon management. This acquisition allowed NatWest to offer Cushon's workplace savings and pension products to its commercial mid-market customers, enhancing its financial wellbeing services.

Cushon

Digital banks that deploy customer deposits to sustainable uses such as renewable energy projects and social housing.

Offers a platform for individuals and businesses to invest in sustainability-related companies, projects, and investment portfolios.

Solutions that allow investors to obtain sustainability-related information on their portfolios such as real-world impact (water savings, CO2 savings, etc.) and ESG-related compliance.

Companies that provide the digital infrastructure for financial institutions to offer their own sustainable finance products.

AI/ML is used to support robo advisory functions and allocate funds into ESG-based investments

Startups in this hub focus on ESG-related financial services such as sustainable investing

Treecard

Sources

EDGE Insights

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless