The sustainable development goal-linked investment app Etcho reports that it has finalized its pre-seed round, by securing £279,000 from angel investors via Crowdcube.
Linking to the United Nation’s 17 SDGs, the Fintech app from Etcho enables users to select the goals they are most passionate about and match it up with their investments, while at the same time, understanding the overall impact of their future investments.
In statements shared with Finextra, Charlie French, co-founder at Etcho, explained that the app is unlike others being offered in the market. He added that there are options “where you can invest into a sustainable fund, but you don’t actually get the choice of which companies you’re investing in and how much money you’re putting into each of those companies.”
French also mentioned that even buying into ESG funds could mean you are actually investing in oil or tobacco stocks. He added that his team wants to give consumers the power and transparency to make their own informed decisions, and offer a platform for clients to better educate themselves, and ultimately take the appropriate actions.
French also shared that Etcho has experienced an increase in retail investors entering the stock market, and that many of them tend to be younger. He added that the younger generation are also quite interested in sustainable finance and making the right decisions when it comes to their finances.
He also mentioned that they wanted to ensure that anyone who wants to understand the impact of their investments “can and has the power to make conscious decisions through access to information.”
Liall Medina, Co-founder of Etcho, shared that their Fintech app is focused on building “from the bottom-up through stock.”
Medina also noted that there’s nothing to say that they won’t look at funds, and it is on their roadmap. They are also taking it from “a bottom-up approach by seeing what people are interested in, what they are picking,” Medina revealed.
Medina also mentioned:
“At the moment there is a fiduciary duty to look after investors that invest in funds, and that usually means still putting profit before people or planet. We want to flip that on its head and offer the transparency to assess all three and allow people to match their morals to their money and see which companies can have a genuine impact.”
With substantial pre-seed funding, Etcho has reportedly transitioned into its development stage, and a minimal viable product is set to go live in Q2 of this year.
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