FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is Genervest?
Genervest refers to Genervest SCE Limited, Stichting Genervest, the Website and the Platform.
Genervest is designed to catalyse, accelerate and democratise the transition towards renewable energy – giving back the control of the energy sector to a broader section of society to mitigate and stop climate change. It will allow investors to shift out of existing traditional investments into a fully transparent and impactful new genre of investment, enabled by a global, transformative, low transaction, peer-to-peer investment platform. It will give people back control over what is done with their money. People will be able to invest ethically and socially for our future and earn market rate returns. Investors – big and small – will grow their money while supporting renewable energy projects around the world, helping us all to stop climate change.
What is its legal status?
Genervest SCE Limited (Genervest SCE) is a European Cooperative Society (SCE) regulated under the European Commission Council Regulation No: 1435/2003 Statute for a European Cooperative Society.
The cooperative is established in Croatia where financial services are regulated by HANFA, which is the Croatian Agency for Oversight of Financial Services.
Genervest SCE is not performing crowdfunding services and does not offer financial services. It is not a bank so does not need to be regulated as a financial institution.
Genervestors can only participate in our activities and make loans and investments by becoming members of Genervest SCE and investing in the Genervestee investments the cooperative has decided to support and listed on the Website (Website refers to the domain www.genervest.org).
How does it work?
Genervest will continue to be developed during 2021, with the first stages now completed in Greece. The diagram below shows how the different elements will work once we have set everything up.
It will be this unique combination of these elements that make Genervest different. By providing a holistic solution, working with Greenpeace, having support teams to help our partners (we call Genervestees), connecting them directly to the people who want to move their savings into supporting the energy transition (we call Genervestors) and automating the approvals process, Genervest is different from any other organisation.
To whom it applies?
Genervest’s platform is being launched in Greece initially and will be rolled out across in Europe during 2022
It empowers anyone and everyone who wants to invest in renewable energy and energy transition projects and businesses to do that directly.
It empowers people and businesses who want to develop and build renewable energy projects or energy transition businesses by giving them or connecting them to the help they need, when they need it.
It is there for anyone that has savings they wish were doing good and being used for building a better future.
It is there for people that need money for renewable energy projects big and small, from fitting solar panels on their roof to developing a solar farm for connecting to the grid.
Genervestors are the people who become members of Genervest SCE and lend money to or invest in Genervestees.
Genervestees are any legal entity or person that wishes to receive funding from Genervestors and support services from Genervest.
How do we use it ?
Investing using Genervest is very simple: Genervest will register investment opportunities put forward by Genevrestees and accepted by the Genervest Cooperative onto the Platform (clean energy projects and businesses). Any person can become a Genervestor by logging in and opening an account in a few simple steps. They can see the information of the projects approved in the Platform, create a personal virtual wallet and decide how to spread the money into different projects, or maybe just do a single investment.
Projects will be located in different locations and offer different conditions, depending on the technology, size, financial needs and risk through the platform. These projects will go through due diligence, the approvals processes’ algorithms and receive the appropriate assistance from the Support Teams to get the project or business launched in the platform and funding ready (get required permits, licences and approvals, finish the business model). The investment opportunities will need to pass through a final investment approval by Genervest, then they may be aggregated into project types (for instance Rooftop Solar Greece) and/or listed on the Platform individually.
Every project will be online for a specific period (usually 1-3 months) within which people will be able to invest small and bigger amounts. Once this period finishes, Genervestees will sign a loan or investment agreement and receive the money, and investors will start getting their money back according to the terms and conditions offered by each project promoter.
Is it safe?
Loans are secured against Genervestee assets and their income streams from the energy generated. All Genervestees are carefully screened. Genervest cannot provide any protection at this stage against borrowers defaulting, however we can guarantee that all projects and Genervestees will have gone through a detailed legal and financial evaluation by our support and legal teams.
All Genervestees in our portfolio are well established companies, communities, unions and installers with many years of experience in the Greek energy sector. When we include Genervestees that are cooperatives, energy communities or start-up businesses, this will be made clear and we will always conduct careful due diligence.
As shown in the diagram above, we are working towards making investments protected during 2022, this will come as we move our focus to funding the Genervest Foundation and bringing in large scale funding. This money will fund large scale projects and initiatives and provide an underpin whilst allowing us to aggregate projects and mitigate risk. We will also seek to insure the investments when we have developed a track record and over time our goal is to make using Genervest as safe as a bank.
How is Greenpeace involved in this?
Genervest is powered by Greenpeace as a way to give back the power to the people: it enables people that want to do something about the climate crisis and encourages and supports those who are part of the change in order to stop climate change. Genervest is a way to bring them together.
Genervest has been incorporated by Greenpeace Greece with the authorisation of Greenpeace Netherlands and International. Greenpeace Greece is the priority (and only) shareholder of the company and it has control over the use of the brand and supervision over the activities of the company.
For Greenpeace, Genervest is a much needed solution and campaign tool designed and set up to boost the support to the energy transition and to democratize renewable energy by making these projects mainstream and accessible to anyone who can invest a little amount of money. Meanwhile, after years of campaigning for energy democracy, we are aware of how hard it is for citizens to finance a solar installation. With Genervest, we aim to promote a new way of collaborative finance among actors participating in the energy transition, but that specially protects the role of citizens.