– audio in German –
Erik never wanted to work in finance — yet here he is, co-founder of an impact investing platform (Inyova) that empowers everyday people to invest for good without sacrificing returns or needing to be millionaires. Inyova’s offering stands out for two reasons: (1) it makes ESG investing easy, digital, and personalized, with an initial investment of as little as 2,000 CHF; and (2) it embraces active ownership.
Erik studied engineering with a focus on renewable energy at ETH Zurich before spending a few years at McKinsey. He then teamed up with his best friend, Tillmann Lang, to launch Inyova.
While their stock selection isn’t overly restrictive (you’ll still see familiar names like Apple, Nvidia, or BMW), Inyova aspires for real impact by engaging in shareholder activism on behalf of investors. Pioneering technology underpins this approach, fostering direct involvement and offering a refreshing alternative to the lukewarm, often opaque impact products offered by typical banks.
We caught up with Erik to chat about how Inyova can empower investments that truly work for good while delivering competitive returns, as well as about the fundamental challenges that arise with that.
0. Inyova’s stock portfolio
Inyova provides an ESG-aligned selection of over 300 stocks (plus green bonds). You can then tailor this portfolio to fit your personal definition of impact. It’s a straightforward way to start investing ethically without needing to sift through countless companies on your own.
1. Does it pay to save the world?
Research shows that ESG-aligned companies yield competitive returns, and are possibly even overperforming.* But Inyova’s bet goes one step further – they believe that impact generation (i.e. a company invests into becoming sustainable) produces MORE profitable businesses in the long run (because of changed climate, changed regulation and changed consumer behaviour).
2. Together we are more
Can everyday investors genuinely move the needle on global issues? By pooling resources and focusing on businesses that prioritize sustainable practices, the platform aims at bundling (mostly) small-scale investments to influence big outcomes. It empowers the idea that collective action of investors that truly care about impact can influence the broader market’s direction.
3.Next-generation fintech
One of Inyova’s key assets is its technology. The platform is spearheading transparent impact investing in several ways, among others by building technology for active ownership.
*Remember, ESG is an indicator of the risk that future change poses TO any given company, it does not measure the positive or negative impact a company is having ON people and planet. There is yet not enough data to measure the comparative financial performance of the latter, i.e. good-for-the-world companies (mostly because regulation to measure this kind of impact is being put into place only now).