Tulipshare is targeting the next generation of shareholders by tapping into their booming interest in retail investment and demand for a corporate ESG overhaul.
The new
Currently, investors can buy shares in just these three companies trading on the
But with these, the platform plans to set a precedent for retail investors coming together to effect green change in many more businesses.
“It’s funny because I incorporated the business in
He is of course talking about the army of retail investors that swarmed to Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum to battle short-selling hedge funds and catapult shares in
“Aside from the whole
Buying a £1 share in a company sounds negligible as it would conventionally get you nowhere near the board, granting theoretical voting rights but standing miles off the 4 per cent ownership necessary for
But when an investor uses Tulipshare to invest in one of the three companies, they forfeit their shareholder rights so that the platform can aggregate them.
Once Tulipshare has accumulated the critical mass of
“If you have one share in Amazon, you’re entitled to write to the board and ask for an answer to any question – but it doesn’t mean they’ll answer,” Argouges says.
“But if it’s you plus 10,000 people who collectively own 100,000 shares, it’s no longer in the power of the company because the resolution you submit will be voted on by all the other shareholders.
“This is ultimately the only way for us to get our campaigns to actually become binding for the companies and the executive,” he adds.
That resolution will be for one of the three ethical campaigns: Right-to-repair at Apple so that people can repair their devices without jeopardising their customer guarantee; fair and safe working conditions for Amazon warehouse workers; and all plastic bottles produced by drinks giant Coca-Cola being made from 100 per cent recycled materials.
It might not be an immediate hit on Reddit with the booming get-rich-quick retail investor scene, but founder Argouges wants to use Tulipshare to encourage retail investors to “rethink” their long-term investment strategies.
“For far too long if you go into any general meeting when ESG resolutions are voted on, the company’s usual answer has been ‘the shareholders don’t want it to happen,'” Argouges says.
“So now we want to change this narrative by giving the exec team an opportunity to rely on a group of shareholders that want to drive significant and positive change.”
Argouges expects the campaigns to go viral on social media, as nascent investors are given a chance to express their ethical demands for big corporations and “put their money where their mouth is” for the first time.
The platform, which launched this week, is still in its early days with
“The
“When people realise that buying Coca-Cola shares means buying an opportunity to ban plastic in our oceans, word will spread.
“We’ll then use that success in our first campaigns to create a cascade of success.”
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