During Money20/20 in Amsterdam, Finextra caught up with Daniel Baeriswyl, CEO and founder of Science Card, a neobank that offers customers an online current account and the opportunity to make contributions to impactful peer-reviewed scientific research.
Founded in 2021, Science Card aims to create an innovative funding infrastructure by collaborating with UK universities to enable users to directly support research projects in vital areas like climate change, healthcare, and education.
Like other neobanks, customers can use the app to round up purchase amounts and learn about research projects to contribute to. Science Card will launch in September 2023, with the aim of resolving the issue of underfunding in STEM and looking to connect the financial world with sustainability research and driving positive change.
On the launch day, Science Card will showcase up to 32 high impact peer-reviewed research projects for ‘free card users’ that can support projects with direct contributions or roundups. ‘Fusion customers’ can also sign up to a £19.90 monthly subscription, where they have the opportunity to earn potential revenue from royalties generated by the research.
Baeriswyl explained that Science Card links users “directly to research projects so funds go direct to a professor at a university and are used in the lab. The lifecycle of research can be very long. The research project starts with a discovery phase that involves experiments, the research is perhaps protected with a patent and then the university will try to commercialise their findings and bring it to the mass market for adoption.”
One example is the Covid-19 vaccine where after clinical trials, it was approved, tested and is now an integral part of the global healthcare system. Science Card’s mission is to connect people who want to use their money for “high impact research.”
Baeriswyl added that with the “FCA’s upcoming Consumer Duty, we are looking for partners who can comply with that and want to see an impact because while the financial services industry is very powerful, we have a responsibility to use that power to make the world a better place.”