Swell Investing was a

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

-based

impact investing Impact investing refers to investing, investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is ...

company founded by David Fanger. The company facilitated investments in businesses that follow the guidelines of the UN

High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development The United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is a subsidiary body of both the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Economic and Social Council responsible for the entire organization's policy on ...

. Founded in 2017, it was a financially backed subsidiary of

Pacific Life Pacific Life Insurance Company is an American insurance company providing life insurance products, annuities, and mutual funds, and offers a variety of investment products and services to individuals, businesses, and pension plans. History Pacif ...

. It was the first investment platform to focus exclusively on impact investment principles.

History

Fanger conceptualized Swell while working for Pacific Life in 2012. On a

due diligence Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a l ...

visit to another company, Fanger noted the employees' dissatisfaction with their company's values. This led Fanger to envision a business in which clientele could invest in socially responsible companies with positive values. A precursor to Swell was launched in 2015 with a six-figure financial backing by Pacific Life, but it was not accredited by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

and therefore relied on a third party brokerage platform for transactions. The initial application failed as a result. With further backing from Pacific Life, the application was relaunched as Swell Investing with SEC accreditation. The new version of Swell went live in May 2017. Companies in which clientele can invest through Swell are listed in a portfolio called the Impact 400. The companies in the Impact 400 follow the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals as determined by manual review Swell employees as opposed to the use of an

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

. As of December 2017, Swell is managing $13 million worth of assets, and as of June 2018, had a total return of 30%. Also in 2018, Swell received an additional $30 million in funding from Pacific Life and was named one of the "50 LA

Startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses t ...

to Watch in 2019" by technology news aggregator Built in LA. Swell was awarded as the best web interface design by

digital banking Digital banking is part of the broader context for the move to online banking, where banking services are delivered over the internet. The shift from traditional to digital banking has been gradual and remains ongoing, and is constituted by diffe ...

consulting firm 11FS in 2019.

Closure

On July 24, 2019, Swell Investing announced that it will be shutting down operations effective immediately due to not being able to "achieve the scale needed to sustain operations in the current market." Existing investors can withdraw their investment balance to their bank account, or transfer to another investment platform of their choice through the use of ACAT. Customers had until August 15, 2019 to begin an ACAT transfer, or until August 20, 2019 to transfer to their bank account.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.swellinvesting.com/homepage Financial services companies of the United States Financial services companies established in 2017 Companies based in Santa Monica, California