Wombat expands ESG offering for “spare change” investing
“The Future of Food fund offers exposure to forward-thinking, innovative companies that are set to benefit from the transformation of the global food system.”
Wombat has expanded its range of ESG investments available for clients of its micro-investing platform.
Since its launch in 2019, Wombat has attracted over 190,000 users and offers access to a selection of curated UK, US, and EU shares alongside its thematic funds.
The investing platform has launched a new sustainable food ETF as part of its efforts to democratize investing for anybody willing to put their spare change at risk in exchange for future gains in the future.
The sustainable food ETF provides investors with exposure to dozens of companies contributing to the creation of more sustainable food production systems and consumption patterns.
The ETF is listed on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker FOOD LN and it is the first thematic fund of its kind to be made available to UK and European investors.
Created by specialist thematic ETF issuer Rize and thematic research company Tematica Research, FOOD LN includes top names within the sustainable food industry, including:
Beyond Meat, the plant-based food company,
Oatly, the world’s largest oatmilk company,
Tattooed Chef, a US-based farm-to-table business which plants and manufactures all its own products.
The ETF is available on Wombat as the 27th theme-based fund and the fifth impact investment option. It is called ‘The Future of Food’.
Kane Harrison, CEO and co-founder of Wombat, commented: “We are pleased to be ahead of the curve in offering UK investors access to the burgeoning sustainable food industry. The Future of Food fund offers exposure to forward-thinking, innovative companies that are set to benefit from the transformation of the global food system.
“At Wombat we have found that some of our most popular thematic funds are those that offer impact investment opportunities, such as our Medical Cannabis and Green Machine ETFs. We think this new sustainable food fund is a great addition to that range and it means we now offer a very competitive choice of impact investments when compared with other micro-investing platforms.
“We will continue to look at opportunities to broaden this list and seek ways to offer our investors exposure to the companies and themes they care most passionately about”, Kane Harrison added.
The app is free to use until the user’s account value reaches £1,000. After that, users are charged at £1 per month plus 0.45% of the value of their investments.
In May 2020, Wombat Invest launched fractional share-trading in some of the top UK companies from as little as £10, the mobile-only investment app announced.
The platform, whose customer base is mostly composed of users aged under 45, offers unlimited commission-free trading to encourage new and small-time investors.
Wombat found that younger and less experienced investors often want to invest regular, round sums, rather than having to think about multiples of individual share prices. As a result, it is now offering fractional shares in some of the well-known FTSE100 and FTSE250 companies, including Vodafone, Burberry, GlaxoSmithKline, and Ocado.
Wombat has recently launched the Women in Power fund that offers exposure to companies taking the lead on gender equality.
The fund tracks the stock price of companies in the UK and abroad that lead to board-level gender balance, parental benefits, and equal opportunities and pay.
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) aims to track the Solactive Equileap Global Gender Equality Net Total Return Index. This is an equally-weighted benchmark of 150 companies from around the world that score highly for gender equality according to 19 criteria. It includes Vodafone, Bank of America, ITV, Nike, Macy’s, Unilever, and Mastercard.
