Sustainability bank Triodos invests in crowdfunding platform

Triodos, the Dutch sustainability bank, joins Crowdinvesting in Germany: Triodos Sustainable Finance Foundation acquired around 20% of the platform Bettervest.

Bettervest specializes in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that seek to raise money from the crowd through the platform. The two companies announced Triodos' access on Thursday. They have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Triodos has already gained experience with a crowd investment platform in the Netherlands. “This complements Triodos Bank's investment approach, which finances major renewable energy projects,” says Georg Schürmann, Managing Director of Triodos Bank in Germany.

Triodos and Bettervest to jointly develop new investment opportunities

In fact, both partners benefit. The Dutch company can refer customers directly to Bettervest if they need more capital than the bank can provide. Bettervest, on the other hand, can recommend Triodos to clients who would not be able to manage a project by crowd investing alone. So they may be able to take on additional debt capital from the bank. The two companies are also likely to benefit from the law approved by the Bundestag Finance Committee on 27 June this year, which will make it easier to issue securities in the future. Patrick Mijnals, founder and CEO of Bettervest, sees the changes as positive, as now also providers of crowdinvestments can easily issue securities that offer investors more security than the previously predominant subordinated loans. Beyond crowdinvestment, Triodos Bank and Bettervest want to jointly develop new investment opportunities. The focus is said to be on digital financial products and the joint approach of private and business customers.

GLS-Bank active in crowdfunding since 2017

GLS-Bank, competitor of Triodos in the small sector of sustainable banks, had already taken the step towards crowdfunding in 2017. GLS Crowd, however, is officially independent. The bank only advises, examines the offers for ethical and ecological criteria and takes over further services. In contrast to Bettervest, investors of GLS Crowd not only find investments in energy, but also in organic food trade, organic food, agriculture and in real estate.