Dealflow | July 22, 2019

Ethic raises $13 million to help investors build custom sustainable investing portfolios

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, July 22 – Ethic is among the crowd of platforms vying for dominance in the $12 trillion U.S. sustainable investing market. The platform helps institutional investors and financial advisors screen existing portfolios and build new ones around values-based equities.

The firm sees the shift in wealth management from active to passive management giving way to “personalized” investing. “We see a lot of people shocked when they actually see what they are invested in,” co-founder Johny Mair said in an earlier interview.

Retail platforms for sustainable investing struggle to differentiate themselves – and to attract customers

Ethic focuses on advisors and institutions already managing money. That may be an easier lift than converting customers to a new platform, which has proved a challenge for retail platforms for sustainable investing.

Ethic’s $13 million funding round was led by existing investors Nyca Partners, with backing from Fidelity Investments, Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures. Existing investors that re-upped include ThirdStream Partners, Urban Innovation Fund and Kapor Capital.