Former Tesla Fintech Head Spins Off Aspiration's Consumer Financial Brand to Serve Growing Demand for Climate-Friendly Financial Products

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Apr 23, 2024, 13:00 ET

New standalone company targets consumer demand for sustainable financial services; nearly 40 percent of US consumers interested in using climate-linked financial products

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the growing demand for climate-friendly financial services, fintech and sustainability industry veteran Tim Newell has reached an agreement with climate finance company Aspiration Partners, Inc., to spin off Aspiration's green consumer financial services brand into a new standalone company. The new company will continue to operate under the Aspiration brand name, offering sustainable checking, savings, and investment accounts that empower climate-conscious individuals to combat climate change through their everyday spending and saving.

Newell, the former head of the consumer financial products teams at Tesla and SolarCity, will take on the role of Chief Executive Officer, having previously led Aspiration's consumer fintech division as Chief Operating Officer of Aspiration Partners. The management team and employees of Aspiration's consumer division are joining as the founding members of the new venture. The new company plans to invest extensively in the addition of more climate-friendly products and features.

The spinout of Aspiration's consumer division as an independent neobank comes at a time when the demand for green banking services is growing. According to a recent survey by McKinsey, green financial products are increasingly sought after by consumers across all income levels and community types, with nearly 40 percent of US consumers reporting interest in enrolling in climate-friendly financial products.

"There's a large and untapped demand by individuals for financial products that help rather than harm the planet," said Tim Newell, CEO, Aspiration. "The most powerful action the average U.S. family can take in the fight against climate change is to switch to a financial partner that does not fund fossil fuel exploration or production."^¹

Consumers who bank with a traditional carbon-intensive bank may be indirectly lending up to 30% of their money to the industries most responsible for fueling the climate crisis, according to a recent study by Project Drawdown, a leading independent climate research organization.

"If every household in the U.S. switched to green banking products, we'd collectively steer clear of funding the equivalent of 161 billion gallons of gasoline each year – that's more than the annual gasoline consumption of the entire United States,"^² Newell added.

Mission Financial Partners, founded by Newell in 2023, will serve as the operating company for the Aspiration brand. Similar to other neobanks, Mission Financial Partners is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services on the Aspiration platform will be provided by Aspiration's long-time banking partner, Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC.

For more insight about the new direction of Aspiration, see today's blog post from Tim Newell, CEO of Mission Financial Partners here: https://blog.aspiration.com/aspirations-next-steps/

About Aspiration

For more than a decade, the Aspiration brand has been at the forefront of integrating climate action into personal finance. Its suite of green financial services products empowers individuals to directly combat climate change through their everyday spending and saving. As a leader in climate-friendly financial services for consumers, Aspiration is dedicated to creating a future where financial decisions contribute to a healthier planet. To learn more visit aspiration.com.

About Mission Financial Partners

Working at the intersection of personal finance, technology, and climate action, Mission Financial Partners (MFP) is the operating company powering the Aspiration family of green financial services. Founded by fintech and sustainability industry veteran Tim Newell, MFP assumed operation of the Aspiration consumer brand from Aspiration Partners in February of 2024.

¹ The difference between the average carbon intensity of cash deposited in large, traditional US banks and that of greener banks is based on the 2023 Project Drawdown report "Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking." That carbon intensity savings of 0.183 tCO2e per $1,000 deposited was applied to the average U.S. family's checking and savings account balance of $62,410 per the U.S. Federal Reserve's "Survey of Consumer Finances, 1989 - 2022" (2023). This result was then compared with the results presented in the Project Drawdown report "Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking."

² The same approach as footnote (1) was used to calculate the total CO2e savings from a U.S. household. That CO2e savings per household was then multiplied by the number of households in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022). That total CO2e savings across all households was then converted to gallons of gasoline equivalent using the U.S. EPA's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator (2024). Finally, that result was compared with the total annual U.S. gasoline consumption estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (2023).

SOURCE Aspiration