A4S 2020 International Case Competition winners: Team SATAT
“You can earn returns whilst saving the planet!”
“How can we scale up sustainable financing through a market driven model that will measurably impact key sustainability outcomes?”. This was our prompt for the 2020 A4S International Case Competition (A4SICC). Five of us - Lavanya Madhyanam, Rohit Mathew, Saloni Sheth, Neha Upadhyay and Melbin Thomas - all students at Rotman School of Management in Canada - got together to solve the problem. Investor’s Planet was the result. We were really happy to have been chosen by the judging panel of global financial leaders as the winners for the 2020 competition. Here is our story:
Investor’s Planet is the concept for an investment platform that enables users to invest exclusively in sustainable businesses.
We used the fundamentals of Business Design, championed by the Rotman School of Management, to research and build a product that lets users invest in, and support causes, that they care about. Investor’s Planet allows users to earn returns and create a positive impact through the same instrument.
User research
We decided early on to focus on retail investors. We began by considering two questions:
How do we differentiate ourselves from other investment platforms currently on offer?
Why should any investor care about sustainable finance?
To answer these, we decided to ask the people around us. We interviewed about 70 millennials from across the globe from which we determined that:
- They had heard of sustainable finance but did not know how to invest and what it really meant.
- They did not see themselves as champions of every issue but cared deeply about a few specific causes.
Redefining the Problem
With this knowledge, we went back to the drawing board and redefined our problem as: How can we enable people to learn more about sustainable finance and incentivize them to invest in it?
Solution and Prototyping
We realized the best way to encourage investment into sustainable businesses would be to:
- Simplify the process of investing
- Align the investment outcomes with causes millennials care about
- Factor in their opinion into the investment decision
- Create a sense of social validation for their action
We took this idea back to our initial users to validate it and found that it resonated deeply with them which prompted us in the creation of our idea, investor’s Planet. Investor’s Planet is a platform that offers five to six mutual funds with independent and specific sustainable development targets. The main Sustainable Development Goals we identified to be popular at this stage are – Gender Equality, Poverty, Hunger, Livelihoods, Clean Water and Climate Action.
For example, a first-time investor, who cares about clean water, can now invest in a mutual fund which is a portfolio of companies specifically targeting this outcome.
Our model is aimed at bringing transparency to our investors and by doing so, it will put pressure on companies that have a negative environmental or social impact, to adopt more sustainable strategies.
Through this process, we were able to learn more about sustainable investment, impact evaluation, gaps in the sustainable finance landscape and opportunities to further improve the current offerings. The most important learning we had was adapting to circumstances. With COVID-19 related social distancing norms in place, A4SICC quickly adapted to a video delivery mode and we followed suit to change our presentation and the delivery of our idea with very short notice. We believe this brought out the best in us and has made us determined to pursue this idea further.
For a deeper view of our solution, have a look at our video here.
For more details on the solution you can reach out to us at: melbin.thomasjose@rotman.utoronto.ca
Watch Team SATAT's presentation BELOW
