Reserve a seat for the June 27th MeetUp in Spanish — ¿Cómo empezar a invertir? -here
Join our MeetUps and learn everything you need about impact finance!
MeetUps are online events conducted by Goparity’s very own team and invited guests, to discuss topics related to investment, finance, and impact. Make the best of your impact investment journey with Goparity!
Join Goparity’s team and learn everything you need about impact finance!
MeetUps are online events conducted by Goparity’s very own team and invited guests, to discuss topics related to investment, finance, and impact. Make the best of your impact investment journey with Goparity!"
Part of Goparity’s mission is to promote financial literacy, democratize ethical investments, and empower people to use their money for good. We witness how the lack of financial literacy aggravates inequality and we want to fight it. That’s why anyone can read our FAQs and find a lot of public information about impact finance, join our platform for free and learn how to invest with only 5€ (and fee-free). One of our ways of walking the talk is by organizing what we call #MeetUps. These are online or in-person educational sessions regarding the world of impact finance. We try to cover the main concepts of impact finance and investment. MeetUps can be conducted in English, Portuguese, or Spanish to make sure they are accessible to everyone in our community. We want to share all our knowledge and take down barriers so that you can actively manage your personal finances and invest with confidence. Goparity wants to present the world of impact finance in a clear and simple way, with no room for pretentious words or complicated concepts, but a lot of room to answer your questions and hear your concerns. MeetUp topics include: - How do I start investing? - Let’s talk about risk and fears. - How do I declare my investments? - #MeetUp with a campaign promotor.
As a company that wants to create positive social and environmental impact, we strive to be transparent, open, and accessible. Our #MeetUps are promoted via email marketing (for recent users) and on our social media platforms. Stay in tune.
Goparity is an online investment platform connecting private and institutional investors with projects that are in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We operate based on a crowd-lending business model, – in which our community of investors pool their funds together in order to lend collectively to specific projects. Although the investors contribute to a pool of funds, they are each entering into an individual contract with the project promoter for the amount they have invested. As an investor you can lend money to project promoters in order to finance their projects, starting with as little as 5€ and as much as 24.999€. In return, you get a fixed interest return on your investment throughout the duration of the loan.
As a project promoter, you can raise money through our platform to fund your sustainable project. Anyone from your community can support your cause by joining our community of investors. Goparity takes care of all formalities associated with crowdlending, specifically the execution of the payments and the fulfilment of tax obligations.
What is crowdlending?
Crowdlending is the practice of collectively lending funds to a business through an online intermediary such as GoParity, which matches lenders with borrowers — bypassing banks and other financial institutions. This type of institutions operates with a low overhead when compared to traditional financial entities and does not charge heavy fees. P2B platforms also offer significantly higher returns on investments than traditional banks and are an attractive alternative (or additional form of diversification) to stocks, bonds, real estate, savings accounts, and other forms of securities and assets.
How do I start investing?
If you wish to register with us, please follow the steps below: Click here. - Provide us with your e-mail address and set a password. - Choose the account type which is applicable to you (either personal or organizational account). - We are going to need the following details from you in order to verify your identity: - Full Name - Date of Birth - Phone Number - Nationality - Fiscal Address - Taxpayer Number - Estimated Net Annual Income - Copy of an Identity Document
Once you have completed your registration, you will receive a confirmation email that will contain a link to verify your account. After registering, you cantop up your Goparity wallet with any amount from €5, either by card payment or bank transfer, using your personal Goparity IBAN (which is unique to your account). The next step is to decide which projects you would like to invest in, how much you would like to invest, and start changing the world. You can check the projects which are open for investment here. If you wish to know why we need an identity document, visit this page.
How do investments at Goparity work?
Any investor - either a private investor or an institution - can invest from 5€ in any of our projects open to funding, contributing towards the overall loan value. An investment is a loan from an investor to a project promoter, with fixed interest rates, terms, and periodic payments. An investment fundraising campaign can end for one of two reasons:The campaign has reached its financing goal (100% of the fundraiser).The campaign has reached its deadline (usually 1 month long). In this case, the promoter can decide to either carry out the project by funding the remainder of the campaign, or to cancel the campaign and refund the raised amount to the investors. The Mutual Contracts between the promoter and the investors will be issued three working days (on average) after the campaign has ended. At this point, the amount raised is made available to the promoter and the payments to the investors begin. If you would like to know how we calculate the periodic repayments, please visit this page. All transactions (investments and payments), including the capital movements to and from the investors' wallets, are executed by Goparity on our platform. You can withdraw the funds available in your wallet at any time, by transferring them to a bank account outside of Goparity. You can use this link to check the Portuguese legal requirements regulating collaborative financing (crowd-lending), made available by the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), the entity which regulates our business.
Do I have to pay any fees?
Goparity does not charge any fees on your investments. The opening and topping up of your account - as well as the investment on projects and withdrawal of funds once the investment has been completed - are all free of charge. Nevertheless,in order for us to remain competitive, we have established the following charges which investors will incur under specific circumstances: Should you wish to withdraw your funds, without ever having invested the money: 1% on the fundswithdrawn.Should you wish to withdraw your funds, the minimum value you can withdraw is 0.10€.Should you wish to withdraw your funds, transferring these to a bank account outside of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area): € 2.5 fixed charge.If you wish to sell your investment on a given project through our Secondary Market1% on the capital owed.Processing direct debits lower than 40€ on the GoParity Savings plan: 0,5€. These charges reflect the direct costs which we incur from our partner - MangoPay - a payments service provider. You can check, in detail, our pricing update here.
How do you measure a project's risk?
Before launching any given project, we undertake a rigorous risk assessment in order to evaluate its financial viability (the promoter's and the project's) as well as it's technical viability, according to the following criteria: Expert Judgement: our credit assessment team evaluates the financial conditions of the project through different financial tools, including an internal credit model that determines a risk rating and an interest rate. Statistical Credit Model: we give the project a quantitative grade on a scale that indicates the promoter’s default probability in the following 12 months. This information is outsourced to an external entity - Wiserfunding - which is accredited by the Bank of Portugal. Policy Criteria: We also assess whether a project or promoter is aligned with United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure the promoter has no outstanding issues with the Tax Authority, Social Security and Banking System. The promoter has, therefore, to submit formal financial reports for at least 1 full year, and prove that they are not defaulting on any financial obligation and that they have not been implicated in other judicial incidents. These three steps provide us with a clear perspective on the promoter's financial position, allowing investors to make informed decisions. We assign the project a rating on a scale from A+ to D, where A+ represents the lowest risk and D the highest risk. The R rating represents project restructurings that imply an increase in the operation term of more than 12 months. This information is made available on each project's page.
How do you decide whether a project is impactful or not?
GoParity offers investment opportunities in sustainable projects. Therefore, it’s necessary to define which projects fall within our mission to drive sustainable development. Our definition and objectives for sustainable development are in line with the United Nations Goals: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
More specifically, for a project to be considered impactful or sustainable, it must contribute to the achievement of at least one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, we consider all the targets of each SDG.There are projects that contribute to more than one of the SDGs and others that focus only on one SDG's.As a rule, what defines whether the project has a positive impact (is sustainable) or not, is the activity to be financed, that is, where the campaign money will be used. For example, a project focusing on a shirt production plant and funding for the placement of solar panels aiming to make its facilities more sustainable, reducing its ecological footprint, has an impact and is sustainable, contributing to SDGs 7, 9 and 12. In these cases, the impact measured is the direct consequences of the project to be financed. At the same time, there are companies and/ or organizations in which its main mission is to reach one or more SDGs but the financing will be for treasury or support costs for its development. These types of projects are still accepted as impact or sustainable projects, because the financing objective is to support these companies/ organizations to continue to grow and develop their mission. Consequently, the scope of one or more SDGs is supported, such as the Schools of Heroesproject or the Peru II Organic Cocoa project. In these cases, the impact measured is the impact of the work of the company/ organization where the amount will be invested.
Our mission is to cover all 17 points. The following points are the ones that we have focused most on when approving projects to be funded and those that inspired the creation of project categories:Our vision covers all 17 points. The following are the ones we are most concerned with when approving projects to be financed: #1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere; #6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all; #7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable; #13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; #14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development; #15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Based on the projects funded to date, we have created 5 categories to which we attribute the different projects we have: Water and blue economy, Sustainable Energy, Business in Transition, Social Economy and Sustainable Land Use.