Hallo, Deutschland! We’re live in Germany

Today, we’re launching Grünfin in Germany, the EU’s largest market for sustainable products and home to Europe’s most environmentally-conscious consumers.

But also, the country with one of the EU’s largest pension gaps. Hopefully, we can help to solve this by encouraging more women to invest – based on their values.

How it started

You know how banks never really tell you what kind of impact your money is making, whether it’s sitting on a deposit account or even an investment account?

Our two female co-founders, Karin Nemec and Triin Hertmann, both struggled for a long time to find ways of investing that aligned with their values. Working and raising their families at the same time, preserving the planet for future generations became increasingly important in their minds. But a simple solution did not exist.

Combined, they had a wealth of experience in finance and technology. Even so, they saw how building a sustainable investing portfolio that truly stands for their personal values was difficult – even for an expert. This led them to want to build an investing product that would have impact at its forefront, but at the same time, be accessible to even a beginner.

So instead of having people buy stocks or funds based on their name or CEO’s Twitter posts, Grünfin set out to help everyone bring their values into investing and see the impact of their money.

We call this impact-focused sustainable investing.

Why women are the better investors

At Grünfin, giving female investors the tools and confidence to succeed has become an important side-mission.

Men still dominate the financial trading and investment industries. But a 2021 study found that on average, female investors outperformed their male counterparts by 40 basis points or 0.4%.

And one thing that most theories and studies agree on is that women invest in line with their values. In fact, according to the Center for Talent Innovation, 88% of women are eager to invest in organizations that promote social wellbeing.

Given that sustainable investing is one of the most powerful ways individuals can impact the world around them, women have an enormous opportunity to shape the world to be a better place for the next generations.

Helping to close the pension gap

Although Germany is the largest economy in Europe, it also boasts one of the largest pension gaps in the region.

In 2019, women over 65 in Germany received a pension that was on average 36% lower than men. That is far below the EU average of 29% and lags way behind countries like Estonia (2%) or Denmark (7%). A growing number of women are turning to long-term investments to close the pension gap.

Given that women are also more concerned with the positive impact of their investments, this makes them a particularly valuable group of investors for a sustainable world.

Women have an enormous opportunity to shape the world to be a better place for the next generations while securing their own financial future.

Your finances can boost your sustainability efforts – a lot

If we’re asked about choices we can make to lead a more sustainable life, most of us will come up with a similar list of things.

It will likely include recycling, travelling less, preferring walking, cycling or public transportation to cars or planes, eating less meat, moving to a renewable energy provider, and so on.

However, the power of your finances to crush your carbon footprint is still relatively unknown.

Some studies have pointed out that shifting savings to sustainable assets can have a more than 20x impact on your carbon footprint than giving up flying, becoming a vegetarian, and moving to a renewable energy provider combined.

It means that adding “greening your finances” to your checklist of things can help you boost your positive impact by a significant amount.

Join all of us investing with Grünfin

We’ve worked hard to make your first steps as a sustainable investor as easy as possible.

Our home page now features a calculator for you to be able to select your preferred sustainability area, your contribution - one-time or regular - and your investment period.

Based on that, we’ll show you an indicative portfolio with projected gains and the impact it will have on the world.

Go to our home page to learn more.