I chose to invest with Abundance in 2018. They seemed to offer investments to fund good ideas for green energy generation, charging points etc for cities like Manchester. The maturity payout for my... See more
While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more
To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more
See what reviewers are saying
All my big investments payments have been put back, not a few weeks, but years!! Its so dissapointing especially in light that I had to wait years for the investment dates to arrive in the first place... See more
The marketplace is clunky - i'm glad it exists, because that's part of building a believe that these investments are slightly more flexible - but I preferred your previous interface where I could fi... See more
Company replied
I don't see a point in investing in companies that destroy the world I want to retire and my children to thrive in. For my modest savings, Abundance offer a great way to invest money into an IFISA. It... See more
Company details
Written by the company
Abundance lets you invest in local government and earn a stable, long term income while your money funds real green projects in towns, cities and communities across the country.
Contact info
Abundance Investment Ltd, Hamilton House Mabledon Place, WC1H 9BB, London, United Kingdom
- 020 3475 8666
- support@abundanceinvestment.com
- abundanceinvestment.com
3.7
Average
492 reviews
No recent history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative
Replied to 28% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 48 hours
How this company uses Trustpilot
See how their reviews and ratings are sourced, scored, and moderated.
Trading is time consuming
It is quite easy to get around but I do find it a bore to have to go in an out of things. I particularly found yesterday in the trading, that I wanted to buy all the available investments for sale in a particular fund but had to do it one at a time. It would be better if there were a way of consolidating particularly when the bundles being sold a for less than £100
November 29, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Helen,
Thank you for leaving a review and providing feedback. I will pass your feedback regarding our marketplace and the process of investing in multiple instalments across to our product team to consider for future developments.
Kind regards,
The Abundance team
Payment to Abundance did not get invested
Last April I decided to invest in the Southwark Council Green Investment - I read the information, paid the money into Abundance and as far as I could see, ticked the right boxes. I was under the impression it had been put in the Southwark investment - then 6 months later I got an email telling me that my money was sitting in a 0% interest account with Abundance. I have now moved it into a similar investment and cannot see how it sat unused for so long. Not happy.
November 29, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Judith,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. You have spoken to our customer support team about this issue but we just wanted to reply here too. Unfortunately, while you made a deposit into your Abundance account at the time, you did not then invest the money into the investment you wanted.
We appreciate the frustration this has caused and are glad to see that you have now been able to invest the money. We have taken on board your feedback and we will be working to make it clearer in the future the steps required to confirm your investment when making your first deposit.
Kind regards,
The Abundance team
Very confusing application process
Very confusing application process. Went through many screens to start with, then had to be approved, of which there was no warning. Eventually transferred my cash but no receipt or confirmation email was received. On reentering the website I found it was deposited, but there no instructions as to what to do next. Eventually I worked it out, and I think I've completed the investment correctly. But the confirmation email doesn't have any details in it!
November 18, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Sheila,
Very sorry to hear you found the process of making your first investment on Abundance confusing - that's obviously not our intention and we want to make it as smooth as possible.
I can confirm your investment has been made, so there is nothing further you need to do. As some of the steps are only required for your first investment on Abundance, you should find the process quicker for any future investments you choose to make.
I will get in touch directly so we can better understand what went wrong for you and see how we can improve our process.
Yours faithfully,
The Abundance Team
Abundance continues to offer an…
Abundance continues to offer an excellent, efficient online customer experience that enables me to invest in the causes that I care about.
November 20, 2024
Unprompted review
I love how Abundance makes it easy and…
I love how Abundance makes it easy and transparent for me to invest my savings into green projects that my local community is going to benefit from.
November 15, 2024
Unprompted review
This is a very thorough process to make…
This is a very thorough process to make sure you understand the investment risks.
November 11, 2024
Unprompted review
Simple to use platform for green investment
Simple to use platform for green investments. Never had any issues with it. Would recommend
November 8, 2024
Unprompted review
Very professional and always happy to…
Very professional and always happy to go through in detail how the investments are performing. Great way to invest and making the future greener.
October 1, 2024
Unprompted review
Risk averse investor, supporting sustainability
I am generally a risk averse investor but have made a number of investments through Abundance over the last two years. The information that Abundance provides is straightforward, with a strong emphasis on making sure that investment risks are explained. I feel I am able to balance my wish to support sustainable projects against the risks associated with investing in this sector and outside conventional bank/building society savings.
October 25, 2024
Unprompted review
Diversify for the greener good
It is pretty easy to invest in councils via the platform... choose an amount, from your ISA or general investment account and go. I like that the money is going into green projects.
Some very reassuring questions to validate you understand the risks. I haven't had a bad experience (yet) with a council investment, and personally consider them safer than company investment. Obviously the returns are less flattering.
October 18, 2024
Unprompted review
Burning your cash is better than investing on this platform.
Every company on their platform is in default.
Investments are restructured into worthless equity or warrants. If this had happened with one or two projects, it could be considered normal. But no. It's the majority. They are now offering council investment with a 4% return. But why, when the bank pays the same with our the massive risk that everything on their platform.
October 14, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Jon,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We're sorry to hear you've had a poor experience investing with us.
On Abundance you can choose to invest in two categories of investment - higher risk investments from companies, or lower risk investments from councils. You can read more about Abundance’s role in relation to our company investments here (https://help.abundanceinvestment.com/en/articles/3947968-our-role-over-the-life-of-an-investment) and our role in relation to council investments here (https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/legal/loan-disclosures).
Our council investments are lower risk investments and therefore the rate of return will be lower than our company investments - you can learn more about the lower risks of our council investments here:
https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/councils/risks-of-lending-to-councils
We have always maintained rigorous due diligence procedures to ensure that the investments offered on our platform meet the highest standards of transparency, legality and financial sustainability - that level of due diligence has not changed. Our extensive due diligence is done in advance of a company raising funding through Abundance and typically takes months to complete. However our due diligence process does not mitigate the risks that can affect an investment - so we make sure there are clear risk warnings throughout the process of choosing to invest on Abundance.
There is no doubt that the last few years have been very challenging for many businesses, including those companies that have raised money on Abundance. We have seen those companies that had recently raised funding and were still building when the pandemic struck hit particularly hard. It was not so much the immediate challenges of the first lockdown, but those created by subsequent lockdowns and the aftermath as economies around the world got back to work – leading to severe shortages of some materials and labour, in turn driving higher prices (sometimes 20-30% higher and more). Russia’s war in Ukraine and Brexit added to rising prices (the war particularly impacted energy prices) giving no reprieve to those companies already hit by the constraints the pandemic created. Investors in those companies have unfortunately suffered as a result.
We have worked, and will continue to, to support all of the companies funded on Abundance that have struggled in recent years, but our role is limited. As an investment platform only, our role once an investment has closed is largely an administrative one, and we do not manage the businesses or have a direct oversight role. Please get in touch with our support team if you have any questions about your investments and the current status of returning money to investors.
Kind regards,
The Abundance Team
New platform still needs major work
Have been with Abundance for years, as a mechanism for impact investing, rather than solely in pension funds. There have been a mix of investments, some of which are high risk, but potentially high impact. Some have failed, but others have paid out handsomely. Unfortunately the new platform seems to be much more clunky and unintuitive. Hopefully they will eventually sort it out. The tests that now seem to be required are more tedious when they seem to lose the result and send you back to square 1 (and you end up trying a different browser in hope of finding one that sticks).
October 15, 2024
Unprompted review
Helping local councils deliver value…
Helping local councils deliver value through green energy solutions is an investment that gives me a warm feeling, like a hot morning shower straight from the sun.
October 10, 2024
Unprompted review
Abundance
Abundance, nowadays, categorises the types of loans you can make through its platform as being to companies or councils.
This wasn’t always the case. Most of my investments were made before councils were added. In fact, there were disappointingly few offerings at the time - certainly not enough to diversify risk away from individual loans.
Of those I selected, few have been satisfactory, many have defaulted and I’m likely to make an overall loss.
For balance, I’d say some but not all of my loans might have been rated as high risk and the economic environment of recent years has likely had an adverse effect. But to have so many failures is still, I feel, unacceptable.
Abundance might further reasonably point out that they are up front in highlighting risks (the FCA presumably requires them to be). But they’re less vocal about the significant brokerage fees they command and, unless you’re directly affected, you’ll struggle to find details of their failures.
The cuddly looking website continues to attract investors hoping to profit in a socially responsible manner and, given their poor track record with companies, it may be that Abundance are quietly pivoting to councils.
Trouble is the returns on council loans are bettered by many bank accounts, which also tend to have FSCS protection. Having noted the awful state of Birmingham City Council’s finances for example, I personally don’t trust Abundance council loans to be entirely trouble-free.
In future, regardless of the type of loan, I’ll be avoiding Abundance Investment. I’ll also get any remaining invested funds out as soon as I can, if they ever become liquid.
October 8, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Simon,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We're sorry to hear you've had a poor experience investing with us.
On Abundance you can choose to invest in two categories of investment - higher risk investments from companies, or lower risk investments from councils. You can read more about Abundance’s role in relation to our company investments here (https://help.abundanceinvestment.com/en/articles/3947968-our-role-over-the-life-of-an-investment) and our role in relation to council investments here (https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/legal/loan-disclosures).
Our council investments are lower risk investments and therefore the rate of return will be lower than our company investments - you can learn more about the lower risks of our council investments here:
https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/councils/risks-of-lending-to-councils
We do not charge any fees to investors, but do charge fees to the companies and councils that raise money on Abundance - a fee for supporting them to raise the money on Abundance, and then an ongoing administration fee over the life of the investment. Our fees are disclosed to investors on the 'Key Terms' page of each investment and in the Offer Document for company investments.
We have always maintained rigorous due diligence procedures to ensure that the investments offered on our platform meet the highest standards of transparency, legality and financial sustainability - that level of due diligence has not changed. Our extensive due diligence is done in advance of a company raising funding through Abundance and typically takes months to complete. However our due diligence process does not mitigate the risks that can affect an investment - so we make sure there are clear risk warnings throughout the process of choosing to invest on Abundance.
There is no doubt that the last few years have been very challenging for many businesses, including those companies that have raised money on Abundance. We have seen those companies that had recently raised funding and were still building when the pandemic struck hit particularly hard. It was not so much the immediate challenges of the first lockdown, but those created by subsequent lockdowns and the aftermath as economies around the world got back to work – leading to severe shortages of some materials and labour, in turn driving higher prices (sometimes 20-30% higher and more). Russia’s war in Ukraine and Brexit added to rising prices (the war particularly impacted energy prices) giving no reprieve to those companies already hit by the constraints the pandemic created. Investors in those companies have unfortunately suffered as a result.
We have worked, and will continue to, to support all of the companies funded on Abundance that have struggled in recent years, but our role is limited. As an investment platform only, our role once an investment has closed is largely an administrative one, and we do not manage the businesses or have a direct oversight role. Please get in touch with our support team if you have any questions about your investments and the current status of returning money to investors.
Kind regards,
The Abundance Team
Abundance have made the whole process…
Abundance have made the whole process very simple to invest in this important area for local government.
October 1, 2024
Unprompted review
Tired concept, 30% lost
Tired concept used for green investments - I was excited about the green factor until seeing the rate of defaults and companies just taking abundance for a ride for free cash. Have lost about 30% of what I've put in due to defaults. Whatever I get back is now withdrawn to put to better use elsewhere.
September 30, 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Abundance Investment
Hi Zimu,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. We're sorry to hear you've had a poor experience investing with us.
On Abundance you can choose to invest in two categories of investment - higher risk investments from companies, or lower risk investments from councils. You can read more about Abundance’s role in relation to our company investments here (https://help.abundanceinvestment.com/en/articles/3947968-our-role-over-the-life-of-an-investment) and our role in relation to council investments here (https://www.abundanceinvestment.com/legal/loan-disclosures).
We have always maintained rigorous due diligence procedures to ensure that the investments offered on our platform meet the highest standards of transparency, legality and financial sustainability - that level of due diligence has not changed. Our extensive due diligence is done in advance of a company raising funding through Abundance and typically takes months to complete. However our due diligence process does not mitigate the risks that can affect an investment - so we make sure there are clear risk warnings throughout the process of choosing to invest on Abundance.
There is no doubt that the last few years have been very challenging for many businesses, including those companies that have raised money on Abundance. We have seen those companies that had recently raised funding and were still building when the pandemic struck hit particularly hard. It was not so much the immediate challenges of the first lockdown, but those created by subsequent lockdowns and the aftermath as economies around the world got back to work – leading to severe shortages of some materials and labour, in turn driving higher prices (sometimes 20-30% higher and more). Russia’s war in Ukraine and Brexit added to rising prices (the war particularly impacted energy prices) giving no reprieve to those companies already hit by the constraints the pandemic created. Investors in those companies have unfortunately suffered as a result.
We have worked, and will continue to, to support all of the companies funded on Abundance that have struggled in recent years, but our role is limited. As an investment platform only, our role once an investment has closed is largely an administrative one, and we do not manage the businesses or have a direct oversight role. Please get in touch with our support team if you have any questions about your investments and the current status of returning money to investors.
Kind regards,
The Abundance Team
Great way to invest
Great way to invest, for returns and for helping manage the climate crisis through council investments
September 30, 2024
Unprompted review
clear investment platform
clear investment platform
A great way to invest in councils and help communities deliver on their climate change targets whilst at the same time receiving a low risk return.
Abundance Investment is a great platform for socially responsible investments and they help bring together great projects with a like-minded investment community.
September 24, 2024
Unprompted review
Great experience - Thanks
I enjoy putting my money to work to help my community a nice simple way to feel like I am helping out. Thank you!
July 12, 2024
Unprompted review
The Trustpilot Experience
Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.
Companies can ask for reviews via automatic invitations. Labeled Verified, they’re about genuine experiences.
Learn more about other kinds of reviews.
We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.
Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.
Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.
Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.
Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.