What If Investing in the Energy Transition Was as Easy as Buying a Stock?

Nathanael Meyer of ValueVerde on cooperatives, democratic finance, and how just €50 can give you ownership of the energy transition.

Owning the Energy Transition: A Conversation With Nathanael Meyer

Here’s something most people don’t know: you can become a co-owner of a solar farm near your home for as little as €50. You get a vote: one person, one vote, regardless of how much you invest, and you receive annual dividends. Your money goes directly into local renewable energy infrastructure. Not into a fund. Not into a secondary market. Directly into the project.

The catch? Until very recently, joining an energy cooperative in Germany meant printing out a PDF, filling it in by hand, and mailing it via post. In 2025. Nathanael Meyer looked at that process and thought: this is absurd.

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From Politics to FinTech

Nathanael’s path to founding ValueVerde is anything but linear. He started studying journalism in Nürnberg, founded a no-ads online magazine funded by crowdfunding (it didn’t last), moved to Leipzig for a master’s in political science in Halle, worked in public affairs for an SPD politician, then jumped into the financial industry at Evergreen, a sustainable fund manager, where he built out their sales and public relations.

The moment that changed everything came from his political work. Talking to municipal utilities in Saxony, he kept hearing the same complaint: there’s no money for the energy transition. But from his time in finance, he knew the money was there, it just wasn’t going where it was needed. When he discovered energy cooperatives -citizen-owned organizations that build and operate renewable energy projects - and realized nobody in his circle had ever heard of them, the idea clicked.

A Platform for Democratic Investment

ValueVerde is, at its core, a fintech for cooperative shares. The platform makes energy cooperatives visible, comparable, and digitally accessible. You can browse cooperatives by region, project type, or dividend history, and join with a few clicks. Since January 1st, 2025, fully digital membership in cooperatives has been legally permitted in Germany, and ValueVerde was positioned and ready from day one.

The platform now lists 22 energy cooperatives, with more in the pipeline. Partners include banking institutions that embed ValueVerde’s infrastructure into their own apps, offering cooperative shares as a new asset class alongside traditional investment products. The vision: cooperative shares should be as easy to buy as stocks on Trade Republic.

The Numbers So Far

In their first year, ValueVerde has processed nearly €20,000 in cooperative investments through the platform with zero marketing budget. The average investor is 36 years old, significantly younger than the typical cooperative member (average age 55–60). About 25% of investors through the platform are women, compared to roughly 15% for traditional cooperatives. And 70% of users said they had never invested in a cooperative before and didn’t know it was even possible.

The business model runs on two revenue streams: a 5% volume-based software fee from cooperatives for each member acquired through the platform, and a platform access fee from banking partners who integrate ValueVerde’s API. Profitability requires around €20–50 million in annual transaction volume, a fraction of the €176 billion that the Heinrich Böll Foundation estimates German citizens are willing to invest in the energy transition

The €50 Million Question

One of the most compelling moments in the conversation is Nathanael’s frustration with how the impact world talks about money. In impact circles, mentioning that you need €50 million in assets under management to become profitable raises eyebrows. In traditional finance, €50 million is a small fund. There is a real disconnect, and it’s holding back exactly the kind of ventures that could redirect capital toward where it’s needed.

Nathanael is blunt about the VC landscape too: the “Thomas principle”. Thomas hires Thomas. VCs from the same business schools investing in founders from the same business schools, building the same AI copycats. Meanwhile, impact founders with deeply committed, purpose-driven businesses get overlooked because they don’t fit the pattern.

Beyond Energy, Beyond Germany

ValueVerde’s ambitions go well beyond energy cooperatives. Cooperatives run nursing homes, housing, agriculture, and local infrastructure across Germany. And the model isn’t limited to one country. There’s roughly €1 trillion in cooperative structures across Europe. The long-term vision is to make cooperative shares a mainstream asset class: bundled products, savings plans, integrated into banking apps.

But first, there’s a political reality to navigate. Nathanael doesn’t hold back: regulatory uncertainty from the current economic ministry is freezing investment decisions. Cooperatives are hesitating on new projects because they don’t know what the rules will look like next month. His wish list is clear: maintain the Green Deal, stop weakening sustainability standards at the first sign of resistance, and recognize that Europe’s competitive advantage might not be in AI or cars anymore, but in building the world’s most credible sustainability infrastructure.