Luxembourg-based Fund2seed said that it will pay for an orchard tree to be planted for every €1m in client volume handled.

So far, 93 trees have been planted, the company stated on 15 November.

“Initiators who have at least €50m in volume managed by the Fund2seed group can decide for themselves how to use 50% of the harvest from the respective orchard,” Nadja Knoth, who is in charge of firm operations and risk management in Luxembourg, stated in an announcement. “This allows our customers not only to achieve sustainable returns from ‘their’ financial product, but also a juicy fruit yield that has its very own story.”

“It is important to us that all further income from the utilisation of the harvest is used exclusively for charitable purposes,” Knoth said.

Fund2seed struck a deal with the NGO Stiftung Bienenelfe to plant fruit trees and plants in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where farmland is being converted into orchard groves.

A recent study found that orchards bind 1.5 times more CO2 than arable land. “Within the framework of this first Fund2tree project, about 220 tonnes of CO2 will be additionally bound,” the company said.

Fund2sec is a Luxembourg-based securitisation platform focused on sustainable assets for institutional investors that started operations in March 2022.