Harry And Meghan Go Green In Partnership With ESG Fintech

Ethic, an environmental, social and governance (ESG) fintech asset manager in New York announced today that Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex are now “impact partners” at the company in an effort to bring more attention to sustainable investing. 

The couple invested in the company earlier this year. “Working together, we hope to inform, educate and inspire widespread action around some of the most significant and defining issues of our time,” Ethic stated in its press release.

It’s unclear exactly what the couple will do in their new role at Ethic. Requests for comment were not returned at press time. Harry and Meghan told Dealbook they hoped their involvement as impact partners would “help democratize investing, making people more deliberate in their choices and conscious of investing in sustainable companies.” 

Ethic was founded in 2015 to help users easily track and manage their ESG investments. The company focuses largely on wealth advisors around the U.S who manage money for individual clients. In the past year, Ethic has tripled its assets under management, reaching over $1 billion.

“We provide educational content so advisors can have a conversation about sustainability issues and use [our] technology to do health checks on existing portfolios,” said Doug Scott, CEO and co-founder of Ethic in an interview with Forbes in March.

ESG investing has been trending beyond high-profile figures like Harry and Meghan. A survey conducted by Ernst & Young in 2020 indicates that almost half of investors are currently betting on ESG products, almost double the level from the prior year. The survey also says that alternative managers are not keeping pace with this demand, even though 88% of respondents want their asset managers to incorporate ESG in their investment decision-making.

Scott sees this as a growth opportunity as investors transition from traditional asset managers. “That’s where we’re primarily seeing a lot of growth come from because people are wanting to achieve something that’s personalized, not just off the shelf,” Scott said.