Individuals can now buy and sell investments in leading social businesses online through Ethex, the UK’s first not-for-profit stockbroker.

Ethex.org.uk features positive investments (in businesses that offer social, environmental and financial returns as part of mission) rather than traditional social investment that excludes harmful activity. By making positive investing easy to understand and easy to do, Ethex aims to open up the market to thousands of new investors, bringing a significant boost in capital to social businesses and creating liquidity in their investments.

Jamie Hartzell, founding director of Ethex, who has 20 years of experience in building and funding social businesses explains: "Positive investing means investing in a business because of what it does, not what it doesn’t do.” 

“As both a social entrepreneur raising capital, and an investor looking for a social and a financial return, I found that positive investing was not as easy as it should be. Ethex changes that. We believe that Ethex is a game-changer – we want to do for ethical investment what fairtrade and organics have done for ethical consumerism."

Businesses featured on the Ethex site, such as the Ethical Property Company and Charity Bank, go through a rigorous screening process. They must be well established and governed; demonstrate a genuine triple bottom-line return of social, environmental, and financial benefits; and offer a suitable investment or savings product. Ethex provides them with access to a growing community of dedicated ethical investors, making attracting and managing investors easier and lower cost.  

Investors can browse and compare detailed business and investment product profiles and place orders online.  By opening a member account they can track their portfolio of investments. The whole process is designed around the positive investor, taking the hassle out of the investment process, allowing them to invest directly, avoiding complex financial arrangements and high fees, and helping them become more active in their investment decisions.

Jonathan Jenkins, a non-executive director of Ethex and CEO of the Social Investment Business: “Everyone with money and values should want them to match up.  Ethex helps make this easier.”

Ethex is backed by an experienced board of directors and financial support from six leading charitable foundations including the Big Lottery Fund and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Constituted as a company limited by guarantee, Ethex aims to be self-financing in three years.