Aussie climate fintech Bloom raises $525,000 in seed funding

Euphemia, the family office of Up co-founder Dominic Pym, co-led a $525,000 seed round with Envato founders Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, providing industry expertise to help scale Bloom’s already growing mobile investment app and customer base. The funds will be used to hire a full-time resource for business development, improve operations and expand the community.

In addition to the increase, Bloom has reached a key milestone of reaching $1.6 million in funds under management and has appointed former FutureSuper founder Adam Verwey as CEO. He will lead Bloom’s communities, partnerships and operations – to enhance the company’s ability to deliver its intended impact on the planet and people.

Founded in 2019, Bloom Impact Investing focuses on disrupting and democratizing the impact investing market, by making unlisted green investments like solar and wind farms widely available.

Customers can invest from as little as $100, with no brokerage fees. Foundations and companies can also invest for a minimum of $5,000.

It was launched by millennials Camille Socquet-Clerc and Bertrand Caron, who wanted to prove that generating returns and saving the planet are not mutually exclusive. The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia estimates that the impact investment market in Australia will grow fivefold from $20 billion today to $100 billion within five years.

“I wanted to invest in sustainable and climate-positive investments, but most opportunities were limited to wholesale and institutional investors by buying into individual stocks,” said Bloom Impact Investing co-founder and CEO Camille Socquet-Clerc.

“I saw an opportunity to create a path for people like me who wanted to invest but didn’t have $50,000 to spare and endless amounts of free time to research which companies would deliver the best returns and genuine climate impact.”

Ms Socquet-Clerc said this was the first time Australians had the opportunity to invest in these types of companies and private infrastructure projects, within a diversified and liquid portfolio.

“We have created a diversified and liquid portfolio to allow all Australians to invest in and benefit from the clean energy transition,” she said.

– Simply put, our platform does not put all our customers’ eggs in one basket, nor do we lock up their money for long periods of time. We invest in concrete companies and infrastructure projects that cover over 50 different climate solutions that provide a real, measurable climate impact.

“Due to the large amount of greenwashing in financial services, this turned out to be more of a challenge than we first expected. It has forced us to apply a rigorous scientific method to our investment decisions. This means going much further than investing in a couple of solar and wind shares and support solutions with deep decarbonisation potential across all industries such as geothermal energy, wetland protection, metal recycling or low carbon cement.”

Commenting on the increase, Euphemia co-founder and director Dominic Pym said: “Australians are acutely aware of the climate crisis and Bloom is helping to put power back in their hands by investing in the industry and solutions that are addressing the climate crisis today.”

“Camille is a remarkable founder and climate leader. She has put together a strong team to drive the company’s growth in the market.”

Having previously funded Bloom in its pre-seed round, Collis and Cyan Ta’eed returned to lead this raise.

Chairman of Envato, Collis Ta’eed said: “We’ve been really impressed to see how much the Bloom team has done in just one short year, launching a product, attracting ordinary Australians to invest over $1.6 million in total, and build out a portfolio of consequential and impactful investments”

Available to Australian residents only, the Bloom app is available for download in both the Apple and Play stores.