What an exciting year! Thanks to you, we’ve been able to achieve a lot. We have summarised the most important successes in this review of the year.
After months of development and a nail-biting beta test phase, at the beginning of the year the time had come. Anyone who wanted to could open the first consistently mobile and sustainable current account with Tomorrow. We started this project because we want to contribute to a better, more sustainable future. And also because we believe that money can be part of the solution: if it is no longer channelled into coal-fired power plants or the arms industry, but to where it can do good.
Such a project can only succeed if enough people take part. So, at the beginning of the year we were incredibly excited to find out: How would you react? Were we correct in our assessment that the time for a contemporary and sustainable current account had come? Twelve months later, we sent almost 20,000 Tomorrow credit cards to our customers. Getting so many people on board in such a short time is a huge success, for which we are extremely grateful!
The more of us there are, the more we can do. And we’ve already done a lot. At Tomorrow, not a single cent of your money goes into armaments, coal power or genetic engineering. Instead, we finance sustainable projects. 5.1 million euros have already flowed into a “green bond”, the funds from which are used primarily for the expansion of renewable energies. We have invested another 50,000 euros in a microcredit fund. This gives low-income people in developing countries the chance to build a realistic livelihood.
In addition, our customers contribute to climate protection every time they pay with their Tomorrow card. We put the so-called “interchange fee”, which normally goes to the bank for every payment, into a forest protection project in Portel, Brazil. In 2019, we were able to protect an area of rainforest that is the size of 2221 football fields.
One campaign that we particularly enjoyed this year was the #BankraubForGood. For World Savings Day on October 30, we called on bank customers across Germany to transfer as much money as possible from a conventional account to a sustainable account with Tomorrow or another sustainable provider. The idea: instead of giving conventional banks money, we take away them on this World Savings Day - and ensure that it no longer flows into climate-damaging energies, the deforestation of the rainforest or the arms industry, but benefits sustainable projects.
Many people could identify with this type of bank robbery. Using the hashtag #BankraubForGood, they posted photos of themselves as bank robbers on social media. The singer Mogli supported us - and the slam poet Jean-Philippe Kindler even wrote and performed his own piece about the campaign, in which he deals with the financial system and calls for bank robbery. The result: 2.4 million euros have flowed into Tomorrow accounts in nine days alone.
2019 was also an exciting year for Tomorrow as a company. We have moved to a larger office. And we have successfully completed our first major round of financing. In total, we’ve collected 8.5 million euros from impact investors, that is, those investors who want to use their capital for social and environmental change.
What does this finance mean for us? Of course, we are delighted by the confidence of the investors. But the money is not an end in itself for us. Only if we use it as a lever to drive positive change will we live up to our mission. That is why it is so important to us that we find partners who are as interested in the transformation of the financial industry as we are. They aren’t concerned with quick profits, but with sustainable change.
The Tomorrow team has grown strongly in the past year. In fact, it has quadrupled. We’ve brought 37 new employees on board. They are people with very different backgrounds and competencies - and a common mission: to shape the banking of and for tomorrow with you.
We wish you a happy new year, and we’re really looking forward to 2020 with you!