Start-ups in the financial sector usually start with a look at the regulatory setup for licenses and what is needed to set up the organization, which is always lean for start-ups. This was also the case for ATACAMA Partners, which has been on the market since the beginning of July with its first own fund “Global Equity Impact Opportunities”. This is an equity fund in accordance with Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) – which can do more than the usual Article 9 vehicles.​

“Setting up a fund is difficult, you need a lot to go to market with it. That’s why we chose the partner approach and found this partner in the asset manager Laiqon,” says ATACAMA CEO Ferdinand von Bennigsen in an interview with Börsen-Zeitung. The capital management company is Universal-Investment, the custodian is HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt and the sales agent is LAIC Vermögensverwaltung.​

Laiqon (formerly Lloyd Fonds) is a Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich-based company with EUR 6 billion in assets under management. ” Laiqon has a first-class infrastructure for launching funds. Laiqon has also invested well in building a cloud-driven data warehouse, which we use to develop software to improve the investment process. There is also support from the sales team.”​

In addition to its own fund, ATACAMA also supports the Laiqon fund “Global Multi Asset Sustainable”, where it advises on the equity allocation and the upgrade to Article 9. The founder describes the Article 9 process itself as extremely time-consuming. After there had been too much greenwashing, it is now being carefully examined whether companies fit in with their ecological footprint and are therefore Article 9-compliant.​

But ATACAMA was practically invented for this task. Bennigsen, who himself worked on digital business models and transformation strategies for BCG and Earlybird, has the right experts at his side in the founding team. Stanislaus Thurn und Taxis is Portfolio Manager & CIO. He was Head of ESG Research at Flossbach von Storch. Mátyás Csiky, Global Head of Impact at Partners Group, acts as Senior Advisor – and has his ear to the ground in Brussels. The fourth member of the team is Daniel Münch as Junior Portfolio Manager. He also previously worked at Flossbach von Storch, where he worked as an analyst alongside Thurn und Taxis for several years.​

In addition to the founders, the group of shareholders consists of two former DAX CEOs, an ex-CEO of a German private bank and a Managing Director of the partner Laiqon. With these angel investments, ATACAMA has gone through the seed phase. “The first fund should cover its costs by mid-2026 and only then do we want to launch further funds,” says Bennigsen. “We don’t want to get bogged down and want to build up a clean track record.”​

Communication with companies about their sustainability data has already led to opportunities for additional business. They have shown interest in the results of the software-supported analyses, reports the founder. “We now have two consulting projects underway, but for the time being we are not actively looking for mandates, we are only working in dialog with companies. We are helping to implement the reporting requirements. At the same time, we are gathering more expertise and using the findings to improve our process. However, the funds remain our core business.”​

ATACAMA takes a very special approach to portfolio selection, which sets it apart from other Article 9 funds. The process is comprehensive and includes recognized methodologies such as SBTI (Science Based Targets Initiative), which sets scientifically based climate targets. The stock picking works in such a way that it does not focus on stocks that have already been recognized by the market as climate change winners. Instead, ATACAMA focuses on identifying companies with high potential for change. “The change must also have a positive impact on the company’s valuation. This can be achieved, for example, by an aluminum producer that increasingly produces “green” aluminum through future price premiums or an improvement in its competitive position.”​

Increasing regulation is usually the trigger for change. ATACAMA therefore analyzes the latest developments on a daily basis. The regulatory background is clear: Europe has adopted the Green Deal (along with the taxonomy), the USA the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which sets gigantic sums in motion and creates the framework for a sustainable economic order. In this way, money flows are directed, reporting standards and disclosure obligations point the way, so that ultimately these goals are taken into account in every value chain via the domino effect of “regulation – investors – companies”.​

Bennigsen is not a fantasist who blindly advocates the fastest possible action to stop global warming. He sees possible side effects from the regulations, which, for example, should not lead to the industry no longer being able to refinance itself, as it cannot yet be so far along in the transformation. After all, those who perform poorly will probably have to pay hefty premiums for their bonds in future. “We must not kill off the industrial base, because despite the urgency of combating climate change, it is the foundation of our modern life and must be transformed within the bounds of what is technically feasible and economically viable.”​

As a fintech right in the middle of the business that is supposed to help manage change, ATACAMA is of course only turning a small wheel at first. But with its approach, this young fund company may be able to create an impetus that makes waves. The public debate on the transformation of the financial sector, industry and society has become tiresome. “In practice, it is unfortunately the case today that there are only two categories of sustainable funds: Dark green or those that don’t say what they say on the tin.” There is probably no better way to put it.