Ethic raises $29 million to grow customized sustainable portfolios for wealth advisors

ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – Ethic has raised $29 million to grow its customized sustainable portfolios for wealth advisors. The tech-driven asset management platform says it has grown assets under management ten-fold since its 2019 financing round, including to $760 million in sustainable direct indexing strategies. “It’s increasingly clear that the future of asset management is personalized,” said Dan Petrozzo of Oak HC/FT, which led the new financing.

Existing investors including Fidelity Investments, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, ThirdStream Partners, Urban Innovation Fund and Kapor Capital also participated. Ethic has a strategic agreement with Fidelity and has partnered with several large U.S. advisory firms.

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ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

July 30, 2021

The Brief

The Week’s Agent of Impact

Elizabeth McCluskey, CMFG Ventures. This is what an impact investing career path looks like. McCluskey was working at UBS, first in investment banking and then in wealth management, when the Great Financial Crisis wiped out nearly $10 trillion in household wealth. “I got to see firsthand how fragile our financial institutions were and how vulnerable so many Americans were during that time,” McCluskey told ImpactAlpha. She went to Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management to figure out “how I could integrate impact into capitalism.” McCluskey joined Chicago-based Impact Engine and helped it grow from an accelerator for social impact startups into a venture capital and private equity firm managing $63 million in assets. Now, McCluskey has been tapped to head CMFG Ventures’ Discovery Fund, a $15 million open-ended vehicle that will provide venture funding for early-stage fintech startups led by under-represented founders, especially women and people of color.

The Week’s Big 6

1. Year of the Climate Fund. In a single day, announcements of more than $12 billion in institutional capital committed to climate solutions signaled a step-change in climate finance. TPG Rise Climate’s $5.4 billion fundraise and Brookfield Asset Management’s $7 billion fund, along with a parade of other 10-digit green and climate funds, belie a more sober reality. As impressive as the new funds are, Climate Policy Initiative’s Barbara Buchner says what’s remarkable is that “we are not seeing more action to close the trillion-dollar climate investment gap.” Go deeper.

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The Week’s Talent

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The Week’s Jobs

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