On Thursday, sustainable banking pioneer Ando announced that it has successfully raised a $6 million seed capital round. The round was led by fintech VC fund TTV Capital, with participation from venture funds HOF Capital (whose portfolio includes stakes in disruptive payment darlings Stripe, Klarna and Kraken), Georgia-based early-stage investor Kinetic Ventures, and NNS Group.
According to data from the ESG-in-finance advocacy group Reclaim Finance and provided by Ando, over the last 5 years, the world’s 60 largest banks have invested more than $3.8 trillion of their customers’ money into the fossil fuel industry. Ando aims to revolutionize personal finance by investing customer deposits in carbon-reducing projects that fight climate change, as well as provide greater transparency into where it invests customers’ money. A recent report from pan-Scandinavian bank Nordea, investment in Sustainable Banking can have up to 27X the impact of other environmental actions like “going vegan,” taking shorter showers, or installing solar panels on your roof. Describing itself as a “consumer- and planet-friendly alternative to traditional banking,” Ando says more than 30,000 customers have helped fund sustainable loans across three-quarters of the U.S. this year alone.
“We believe there’s a compelling need for innovation and advancement in the financial industry,” said Gardiner Garrard, co-founder and managing partner at TTV Capital, which led the round. “Ando’s Sustainable Banking solution provides customers with modern banking features including, for the first time ever, the ability to direct 100 percent of their bank balance to fund sustainable investments. No other banking institution offers this, and we’re excited about partnering with Ando to bring Sustainable Banking to millions of customers.”
Additional investors cited differentiators including Ando’s polished, user-friendly platform; mission-driven leadership and potential for massive, world-changing impact. Investors also considered the fact that consumers are increasingly interested in making socially conscious decisions (according to a recent BBMG/GlobeScan study, for example, 74 percent of respondents under age 30 globally say they’ve personally been greatly or moderately affected by climate change or global warming).
Ando launched in January 2021 as the only banking service to use customer deposits to fund solar initiatives and other carbon-reducing projects. This active role in helping combat climate change comes at no cost to Ando users, who enjoy a full suite of the most desirable banking features, including what it describes as best-in-class security, FDIC protection, bonuses for referring friends, free overdraft protection and the opportunity to get paid up to two days early.
Ando, which is a Certified B-Corp, routes customers’ deposits to sustainable initiatives by partnering with local banks and credit unions. Current partner banks include WebBank and Virginia Community Capital, with loan recipients including home owners, community gathering places, fire departments, veterinary clinics and other local businesses.
According to Ando, these local bank partnerships help the company quickly and efficiently route customer deposits to projects that will make an immediate and positive environmental impact. At the same time, the local banks can leverage Ando’s national platform to more quickly meet their own sustainability goals.
“There are more than 9,000 community banks and credit unions across the United States,” said Ando founder and CEO J.P. McNeill. “Our partnership model helps these regional and smaller banks—which hold tremendous deposit power when united—fund and grow their green assets at no cost to their account holders. If Ando can help community banks grow their green loans by just 1 percent, it’d equate to $33 billion worth of green loans.”
Earlier this year, Ando began an endorsement partnership with renowned rock climber and environmentalist Alex Honnold, the first person on Earth to “free solo” (i.e., to scale without rope, a partner, or any protective gear) Yosemite’s El Capitan.
