18 months after its launch, Keenest, a French climate-focused funding membership, has reached an vital milestone: greater than €5 million has been invested in influence startups to speed up the transition to a carbon-free economic system.
Jérémie Sicsic, CEO of Keenest stated (translated): “Particular person financial savings are a substantial lever for financing the sustainable economic system. By investing instantly in influence initiatives, each citizen turns into a driving power for transition, whereas taking part within the creation of a greener, extra resilient and extra sovereign economic system.”
Keenest is a platform for financing local weather applied sciences created in 2023 by Jérémie Sicsic and Renan Labrunie, with the assist of Mehdi Coly, CEO of Group for the Planet. Initially launched with 300 buyers, Keenest now has 3,500 members. The membership says their neighborhood is especially made up of people who wish to give that means to their financial savings.
Sicsic is a serial entrepreneur. At 36, the previous EM Lyon pupil has created a number of firms, starting from tutored on-line coaching (Unow) to an worker engagement measurement platform (Briq). The latter was acquired in 2020 by Swile, which subsequently grew to become a French unicorn.
With funding initiatives accessible from €500, the platform has helped finance startups comparable to Suggestions, Sapiologie, Loewi, OpenClimat, Zilo Énergie, Kolverr, Arkeon Power, Fenix Power and Seaturns, all of that are gamers within the ecological transition.
Keenest innovates by providing local weather dividends, paid based on the tonnes of CO₂ prevented by the initiatives financed. The higher the environmental influence, the upper the return. Keenest believes that this mechanism creates a virtuous circle for sustainable funding.
The membership goals for a median annual return of 20% on investments made, whereas providing liquidity prospects.
Constructing on this momentum, Keenest goals to:
- Implement a non-financial dashboard by the tip of 2025 for clear monitoring of influence indicators, together with the primary local weather dividends distributed
- Increase a complete of €10 million by March 2026
- Finance 20 influence initiatives
- Launch a diversified fund to spend money on all initiatives chosen by Keenest by 2026
Keenest is a mission-driven firm. The corporate’s ‘raison d’être’, inside the that means of Article 1835 of the French Civil Code, is “to work in direction of financing a carbon-free world“.
