Brisbane fintech Bloom Impact Investing has raised $525,000 in a seed round co-led by Up bank co-founder Dom Pym, with Envato founders Collis and Cyan Ta’eed doubling the investment app.

In a sign of the new times, funding is less than Bloom’s pre-seed raise of $675,000 in October 2021.

That round was led by Climate Tech Startup Accelerator and Innovation Network, Energy Lab with the Ta’eeds, ACAC Innovation, Palm Beach Ventures and NOAB Ventures also chip. Pym came on board on the latest raise through his family office, Euphemia, and also brought his financial industry wisdom to the table for Bloom’s climate-focused mobile investment app.

The cash injection is for a rental for business development and operational development.

Founded in 2019 by Camille Socquet-Clerc and Bertrand Caron, the Bloom app makes it easier for private investors to make impact investments. They can invest in a diversified portfolio (or mutual fund) of clean energy infrastructure (such as solar farms) and cleantech companies, with as little as $100.

Socquet-Clerc, CEO of Bloom, said they now have $1.6 million in funds under management.

“I wanted to invest in sustainable and climate-positive investments, but most of the opportunities were limited to wholesale and institutional investors by buying back individual stocks,” she said.

“We have created a diversified and liquid portfolio to enable all Australians to invest in and benefit from the clean energy transition. Simply put, our platform doesn’t put all our clients’ eggs in one basket, nor do we keep their money under lock and key for long periods of time.

“We invest in tangible businesses and infrastructure projects that encompass more than 50 different climate solutions that have a real, measurable climate impact.”

“Due to the sheer amount of greenwashing in the financial services industry, this turned out to be more challenging than we initially anticipated,” said Socquet-Clerc.

“It has forced us to apply a rigorous scientific method to our investment decisions. This means that we need to go far beyond investing in a few shares of solar and wind energy and support solutions with deep decarbonisation potential across all sectors, such as geothermal energy, wetland protection, metal recycling or low-carbon cement.”

Envato chairman Collis Ta’eed said: “We are really impressed to see how much the Bloom team has done in just one short year, launching a product, attracting everyday Australians to collectively invest more than $1.6 million and a portfolio of consistent and impactful investments”