Los Angeles-based Aspiration, an ESG-oriented banking and investing fintech, announced today that it had closed a $135 million Series C funding round.
According to Aspiration’s announcement, over 1.5 million Americans have engaged with Aspiration’s services, which include high-yield savings and cash management accounts, sustainability and environmentally oriented investment options open to investors with small account balances, IRAs and streamlined charitable giving opportunities.
The firm also offers an Aspiration Impact Measurement score that tracks user’s spending for its implications for sustainability and the environment, the ability to plant a tree with each purchase using its accounts and the ability to automatically carbon-offset fuel purchases.
Aspiration claims that its ESG- and impact-oriented savings and investment options can have a measurable effect on the world.
“By moving their money to our fossil fuel free deposits and investments, our customers are bringing about substantial CO2 reductions, estimated equivalent to over half a billion fewer miles being driven a year,” said an Aspiration blog entry posted on Friday. “…That’s without sacrificing the financial features our customers deserve - including nationwide fee-free ATM access, cash back rewards of up to 10%, FDIC insurance on deposits and a competitive interest rate.”
As a matter of practice, Aspiration gives 10% of the profits from many of its services to charity.
Aspiration was founded in 2013 by Andrei Cherny, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton Since then, more than $4 billion in transactions have passed through its accounts.