Climate First Bancorp recently announced the purchase of the climate and social justice fintech platform developed by the startup Ecountabl. Climate First Bancorp is the holding company for Climate First Bank, the nation’s leading full-service, FDIC-insured commercial bank focused on environmental sustainability. The bank has made a strong presence in the Tampa Bay community as the world’s first community bank founded to fight the climate crisis.
What is the Ecountabl tech platform?
Ecountabl is a platform that indexes data on over 10,000 companies. It analyzes their environmental, social, and governance performance to help customers track how their purchases with brands align with their personal values. This purchase will accelerate growth and strengthen the core capabilities of OneEthos, the digital banking fintech under the Climate First Bancorp umbrella.
“Banks should make it easy for people to spend their money in ways that align with their social and environmental values,” said Ken LaRoe, Chairman and CEO of Climate First Bancorp. “This acquisition strengthens how OneEthos and Climate First Bank leverage technology and innovation to bring remarkable value to our customers, communities and other stakeholders.”
Related: Climate First Bank is Getting the Green Message Out
OneEthos is in the process of integrating Ecountabl technologies into its core platform. Climate First Bank customers will be able to use it in 2023. As a result of the acquisition, two Ecountabl co-founders joined the OneEthos team. Andy Burr, Ecountabl Chief Executive Officer, was named Chief Growth Officer of OneEthos. Additionally, Justin Bretting, Ecountabl Chief Technology Officer, was named Chief Technology Officer of OneEthos.
“The award-winning platform developed by Ecountabl is the future of sustainable digital banking,” said Marcio deOliveira, co-founder and CEO of OneEthos. “We are excited to bring Andy and Justin on board at OneEthos and make these technologies available to digital banking customers at Climate First Bank. And other financial institutions in the future.”
More about OneEthos
OneEthos currently provides Climate First Bank with a full range of mission-aligned fintech solutions. This includes things like
- Financing for climate-positive technologies
- Online and mobile banking
- Climate performance measurement and reporting.
Climate First Bank began using OneEthos’ digital solar lending platform earlier this year. This helped the bank reach more than $200 million in assets. As well as exceed $140 million in loans in the first 12 months of operation. Now, with the integration of Encountabl, they will be able to create environmental change within their own products and services. And also epower customers to do the same with their purchasing power.
“We founded Ecountabl to enable financial institutions to better serve their customers,” said Burr. “This acquisition ensures the technologies we built will have a positive impact in the world. We’re thrilled to join OneEthos and continue to build groundbreaking, climate-positive digital banking solutions.”
Click here for more information on the acquisition.