Consumer Behavior Change

Doconomy, Dreams Technology Merge to Empower Banks to Better Engage Climate-Conscious Customers

Through its acquisition of Dreams Technology, Doconomy becomes the first provider to offer a holistic solution that drives meaningful climate and social impact for the financial services industry.

Published 1 year ago | About a 5 minute read

Image: Mikhail Nilov

Today, Doconomy — the leading climate-tech startup helping banks, brands and consumers to better understand and reduce their environmental impacts — announced it has acquired Stockholm-based financial wellbeing fintech Dreams Technology in a first-of-its-kind deal to bridge the unique intersection of behavioral economics and climate impact.

Under the acquisition, Doconomy will incorporate Dreams Technology’s proprietary platform — which leverages behavioral science to deliver radical new ways to boost banking customers’ digital engagement and financial wellbeing — to its suite of leading environmental-impact measurement tools. This will enable Doconomy to offer its existing banks and financial institution partners an extended behavioral-science-driven product portfolio that will include modules for climate-smart savings, debt management and investments.

Through the unique combination of Doconomy’s expertise in quantifying environmental footprints and Dreams Technology’s proven track record of boosting digital engagement and effectively driving behavioral change, the joint product offering will be the first to deliver a best-in-class digital experience that promotes financial wellbeing, encourages sustainable consumption choices and effectuates climate action at scale.

In turn, the acquisition will further help establish financial institutions globally as change agents in tackling the combined climate and cost-of-living crises, while enabling banks to address regulatory sustainability reporting and strengthen client and consumer engagement and retention.

Named one of Wired’s Hottest Nordic Startups of 2022, Doconomy wants to future-proof life on earth by empowering individuals and corporations to take responsibility for their environmental footprint, enabling a sustainable lifestyle for all. Since officially launching the world’s first transaction-based carbon footprint calculator in 2017, Doconomy has successfully sustained impressive year-on-year growth — continually releasing a diverse set of tools and impact methodologies aimed at engaging users in everyday climate action. Doconomy’s core solution is developed with the application of its environmental impact index (the Åland Index) which enables CO2, plastic and water-impact calculations for all digital financial transactions. Today, Doconomy's ecosystem is setting a global standardized language around how impact is measured; and the company’s technology is now used by Mastercard and deployed in 30 countries by some of the world's leading banks and brands, with over 850 million potential end users.

“Doconomy and Dreams Technology are a perfect match,” says Doconomy co-founder and CEO Mathias Wikström. “Both companies are built to motivate and shape behaviors in an innovative way that is key to sustainable and lasting change. The acquisition will allow us to embed the unique methodology Dreams Technology has built over the years together with their suite of proven products. This will expand our offering, merging our team of experts in climate impact with the behavioral economics talent of Dreams Technology, to achieve urgent and measurable results. We’re confident that our joint forces will accelerate climate literacy while giving a major boost to the financial industry’s transition to net zero — making every transaction count for both people and the planet.”

The demand from financial institutions for climate solutions and carbon monitoring tools has skyrocketed in recent years, as global anxieties about climate change grow. An estimated 72 percent of global emissions are attributable to household consumption. Similarly, a staggering 67 percent of global consumers say they would change their buying behavior to reduce their impact on the environment — but a 2022 Bank of the West report revealed that, although 79 percent of respondents are “passionate” about climate change, only 22 percent know if, for example, their banks or 401Ks are financing fossil fuels — which underlines the unique opportunity for banks that cater to this preference and address the needs of climate-conscious individuals.

Dreams Technology is on a mission to create deeper and more valuable relationships between banks and customers and make financial wellbeing an everyday reality for millions of people worldwide. Building on insights from psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics, the Dreams engagement-banking platform activates intrinsic motivation and drives sustainable behavioral change. Its scientific approach has proven results for key economic and social sustainability goals — including increasing financial wellbeing, financial and gender equality, and responsible consumption. The platform seamlessly integrates into existing bank applications, and empowers banks to meaningfully engage with their customers, drive new revenue streams, and take a future-proof stance on sustainability and social responsibility. Dreams Technology was named ‘Best Digital Banking Solution Provider’ at the 2021 Fintech Futures Banking Tech Awards; it also won three ‘Best of Show’ awards at Finovate in 2021 and 2022. Dreams Technology is the B2B arm of Dreams AB — a consumer money-saving app launched in Sweden in 2016.

Dreams Technology CEO & co-founder Henrik Rosvall, who joins Doconomy’s leadership team, says: “By joining forces with Doconomy, we see a substantial opportunity to promote financial wellbeing and climate action at scale with the first holistic offering in the market. At Dreams Technology, our solutions operationalise over 100 behavioral science insights and are designed to drive sustainable behavioral change in banking customers by closing the intention-action gap; creating positive and impactful financial behaviors; and making money more emotional, accessible and effective for everyone. It’s a match made in heaven using innovation and behavioral expertise to empower banks in their journey from transaction engines to global change agents.”