Die Basler-based pension fund Abendrot has become an anchor investor in the digital impact investing platform Inyova. The pension foundation, which specializes in sustainability and manages around three billion Swiss francs, is joining as a minority shareholder, according to a press release from Inyova. The company has not disclosed the size of the investment.

This step, which still requires approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority Finma, will allow Inyova to secure long-term financing. The plan is to develop new offerings together with Abendrot in order to further expand the market for sustainable investments and become profitable.

In August, the company announced that it had now received a license from FINMA as an asset manager. To date, however, it is not on the «list of asset managers and trustees authorized by FINMA and monitored by a supervisory organization».

High Losses in the Past

The partnership comes at a critical time for the company, as Inyova has faced significant losses and a tight liquidity situation in recent years according to finews.ch. At the end of 2023, the company was still reporting a negative annual result of 2.62 million Swiss francs on sales of 2.43 million francs.

With the partnership with Abendrot and previous financing rounds, including a crowd-investing round, Inyova now considers itself on a more stable path. Co-founder and CEO Tillmann Lang emphasizes: «The fact that we were able to gain a partner like Abendrot in a challenging financing environment confirms our strategy.»

Pension Solutions

The cooperation not only provides financial security, but also serves as an innovation platform. Together, Inyova and Abendrot are planning new solutions for unrestricted and restricted pension provision as well as the expansion of the corporate client business. In addition, Inyova will expand its offering in the coming year to include interest-based impact investing products in order to reach more customer groups.

Inyova, which launched five years ago with an investment app for sustainable investing, has continuously developed its platform since then. Despite challenges such as a high cash burn rate and growing skepticism towards ESG issues, the company is sticking to its goal of making impact investing suitable for the masses.

Around 1 Billion AuM

Inyova currently manages assets in the high three-digit million range and has a five-digit number of clients.

The partnership with Abendrot should help to consolidate Inyova's business model in the long term. At the same time, the company sees opportunities to support banks and insurance companies with B2B services such as sustainable asset management or analyses. «Our collaboration with Abendrot is an important milestone and a laboratory for new ideas», said co-founder Erik Gloerfeld in the press release.