A message from CEO Tim Newell.
A decade ago, Aspiration was founded to revolutionize the financial world. It was a new breed of fintech, a neobank, that wasn't just about profit but about people and the planet. Its mission was to offer financial services that helped individuals do well for themselves and do good for the environment.
As Aspiration grew, it expanded its role in climate finance, investing in global carbon markets and helping corporations offset their carbon emissions. While that strategic shift towards serving large enterprises opened up new areas of growth for Aspiration Partners, the parent company of Aspiration, it also resulted in competing priorities with the company’s original consumer-focused mission.
I'm excited to share that I’ve reached an agreement with Aspiration Partners, to spin off Aspiration's consumer financial services brand into a separate standalone company focused on providing U.S. consumers with innovative climate-friendly financial products. I'm particularly pleased that the entirety of the management team and employees of Aspiration’s consumer business have agreed to join me as the founding team of this new venture.
Operating under the Aspiration brand name, our North Star will be to provide both our current community of Aspiration customers and a new generation of consumers with financial solutions that support their financial well-being while helping them make a positive climate impact.
Why focus on climate-friendly financial services?
We’ve zeroed in on climate through financial services for two key reasons: 1) it's what today’s consumer wants, and 2) it’s one of the most powerful tools we have to alter the course of climate change.
A recent McKinsey survey revealed that almost 40% of US consumers – approximately 103 million people1 – are interested in using climate-friendly financial products. This widespread demand cuts across every demographic—regardless of income level or geographic location.2 It's clear that the desire for green banking alternatives isn't just a passing trend among a niche group; climate-conscious consumers are actively pursuing ways to make a meaningful difference in addressing climate change.
In terms of climate impact, the choice of where to bank may be the most powerful action the average U.S. consumer can take. Why? Because the majority of financial institutions continue to invest heavily in fossil fuel exploration and production. In fact, according to a 2023 study, since 2016 alone, the top 60 banks have funneled $5.5 trillion into fossil fuel companies and activities.3 As a result, consumers who bank with a traditional carbon-intensive bank may be indirectly lending up to 30% of their money to the industries most responsible for fueling the climate crisis.4
That’s why for climate-conscious consumers, the simplest and most powerful step they can take is surprisingly straightforward: switch their deposits to one of the new generation of green financial alternatives such as Aspiration where their money won’t be used to support fossil fuel exploration or production. For the average American family, switching their deposits to a green banking product can have a greater climate impact than buying an electric vehicle or making their home more energy efficient4,5 – and it costs nothing.
Imagine the collective power of every U.S. household switching to a green banking alternative. We could prevent the funding of activities equivalent to burning 161 billion gallons of gasoline annually. That's more than the annual gasoline consumption of the entire United States.6
The road to today
While I’m incredibly proud of where we are today and immensely excited for the opportunity that lies ahead, the path to get here has been hard fought. For my founding team members and I, preparing to relaunch Aspiration has taken more than a year of hard work.
Like many financial technology companies, Aspiration’s consumer business faced significant challenges in the wake of post-pandemic market shifts. The economic landscape underwent dramatic changes, characterized by rising interest rates, inflationary pressures, and evolving regulatory frameworks. These elements collectively impacted both consumer behavior and the availability of capital across the industry.
We knew that to thrive and grow, Aspiration needed a new operating model. That meant making difficult choices to secure the business’ long-term financial health, including the painful decision to let go of many talented team members. We've also had to be laser-focused on reducing operating costs, improving unit economics and streamlining operations. The result is that over the past year, we successfully reduced run-rate operating expenses by 68%, while not only protecting, but increasing our revenues.
Anyone who has led a company can appreciate the difficulty of implementing that level of restructuring, but going through this tough phase was crucial for the long-term sustainability and growth of our business. The result is the launch of a revitalized company with a strong financial foundation, optimally positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for green financial products.
The path ahead for Aspiration
Going forward, Mission Financial Partners will serve as the operating company for the Aspiration family of green financial products. It’s important to note that similar to other neobanks, Mission Financial Partners is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services on the Aspiration platform will be provided by Aspiration’s long-time banking partner, Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. Their partnership is an important part of the value we provide to our customers, and we are pleased to continue building on that relationship.
Today, we provide a range of spending, saving, and investment solutions for individuals and families. Looking ahead, our plan is to invest in expanding the portfolio of climate-friendly products we offer to support our customers' financial needs with banking, credit, lending, investment, and insurance products, all the while empowering them to make a positive impact on the climate. Our community has already planted over 28 million trees, and this is only the beginning.
There will be more news to come on the transition. For now, I would like to thank the entire Aspiration community – team members, customers, partners and investors – for their support, and I look forward to sharing more updates on our progress as we build the world’s most climate-friendly consumer financial services company.
1 Based on 2020 U.S. Census data of adult population.
2 McKinsey, 2023. “Green growth: Unlocking sustainability opportunities for retail banks.”
3 Rainforest Action Network, 2023. “Banking on Climate Chaos.”
4 Project Drawdown, 2023. “Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking.”
5 The difference between the average carbon intensity of cash deposited in large, traditional US banks and that of greener banks is based on the 2023 Project Drawdown report “Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking.” That carbon intensity savings of 0.183 tCO2e per $1000 deposited was applied to the average U.S. family’s checking and savings account balance of $62,410 per the U.S. Federal Reserve’s “Survey of Consumer Finances, 1989 - 2022” (2023). This result was then compared with the results presented in the Project Drawdown report “Saving [For] the Planet: The Climate Power of Personal Banking.”
6 The same approach as footnote (5) was used to calculate the total CO2e savings from a U.S. household. That CO2e savings per household was then multiplied by the number of households in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022). That total CO2e savings across all households was then converted to gallons of gasoline equivalent using the U.S. EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator (2024). Finally, that result was compared with the total annual U.S. gasoline consumption estimated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (2023).