A position evidenced by the region’s large community of startups leveraging technology to address both sustainability and finance needs. This rise has been driven by a supportive policy context and the multitude of initiatives introduced by governments across the continent to foster innovation in green finance. Europe’s burgeoning climate fintech ecosystem can in part be explained by the region’s more progressive top-down climate finance policymaking, with initiatives such as the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives approved in 2020 with the overarching aim of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral in 2050, as well as the implementation of implementation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR), which mandate climate disclosures by companies.
Switzerland is home to a thriving climate fintech space that’s been facilitated by supportive initiatives and promotion efforts by the government. Currently, Switzerland’s climate fintech startup ecosystem comprises 29 companies, among which 12 that specialize in digital investment solutions. This makes digital investment solutions the most crowded segment in the Swiss climate fintech industry, followed by digital asset solutions (7), and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) data and analytics (4). Digital payments and account solutions, digital deposit and lending, and digital risk analysis and insurtech rank last with two startups each. Globally, climate fintech remains a nascent industry, the report says, a state that’s evidenced by the prominence of seed and Series A funding rounds. ESG data and analytics is the most advanced and represented segment, with 88 startups in the space out of the world’s 400+ climate fintech companies.