Sustainable investment platform Grünfin closes down
Grünfin in Estonia has announced it is shutting down its impact-focused investment platform.
Estonia’s Grünfin closes down
The platform was founded by Karin Nemec and Triin Hertmann in 2020 to democratise access to sustainable ETFs for retail investors.
The Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority issued authorisation to Grünfin in October of the following year, while Norrsken VC, Superangel, United Angels and Lemonade Stand provided €2 million in funding.
Taking to LinkedIn this week to announce the closure, Hertmann writes: “Unfortunately it didn’t work out with Grünfin as we hoped, we are proceeding to close our operations and refund our customers their invested money.”
“All customers will receive important information via email and money back in coming weeks,” Hertmann adds.
Also announcing the closure on LinkedIn, CEO Nemec says: “We’re not at the end of runway, we just know it won’t come together and we have given it all.”
“Our great product was not enough,” her statement continues. “The trust barrier, the misconception in peoples’ minds that sustainable investing has low returns, and lack of urgency to start investing now – have all been challenges for us while building Grünfin.”
Nemec says the team, which includes former Wise director Alvar Lumberg as CTO, “tried many approaches but couldn’t overcome those barriers to achieve the high speed growth at scale”.
“We start to return to our customers their money and hope they will continue investing it sustainably,” Nemec adds.
