The new app was born out of frustration at the lack of clarity surrounding green investing, particularly with retail investments.
Moneyhub-powered portfolio checker Sugi officially opened its public beta yesterday.
Sugi allows retail investors to check the carbon impact of their investments and compare investments with industry benchmarks to help them build a greener portfolio.
As more and more people turn to sustainable investing, fellow fintechs have turned to greener options too—Moneybox has a Socially Responsible Pension as well as other sustainable investment options, PensionBee is in the process of launching a fossil fuel-free pension fund and Dutch challenger bank bunq has planted over 1.6m trees on behalf of its customers.
Sugi’s free-to-use tool shows users the carbon impact of individual investments in straightforward terms and carbon data for similar investment in the market.
Josh Gregory, CEO and founder of Sugi, said: “While Covid has accelerated awareness and demand of green investing, it’s hard for retail investors to take action. Research shows that over 75 per cent of UK investors want their investments to have a positive impact; however, only a small proportion of people actually follow through with it.”
“The reasons for this vary. Sustainable investing is full of jargon and investors are rightly concerned about greenwashing. Another problem is ESG ratings: they’re meant to simplify complex issues but are themselves very confusing – even for experienced retail investors. All of this ultimately stops more people getting involved.”
Gregory added that by working with Moneyhub the fledgeling app has extensive access to financial information, making green investing “easier, understandable and more accessible for everyone.”
Sugi’s app connects to more than 80 investment platforms and covers 95 per cent of the listed equities market, giving users data from over 15,000 listed equities, over 3,500 ETFs and some actively managed funds.
Samantha Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub, added: “Until now, aligning an individual investor’s portfolio with their own values has been virtually impossible, but by utilising the power of Open Banking and Open Finance, we are able to make it easy for investors to build greener portfolios.”
“Our partnership with Sugi demonstrates the true potential of Open Finance and its ability to solve real-world, complex financial issues, beyond account aggregation and payments.”
Sugi’s beta opened yesterday and, despite its extensive coverage, is looking to cover a wider range of funds in the coming months.
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