A Capital Market for Cooperatives and Mutuals

Coop Exchange is building a global network of stock exchanges dedicated to Cooperatives and Mutuals, allowing anyone to invest with impact.

A Cooperative Stock Exchange

Coop Exchange is building a global network of cooperative stock exchanges, an international platform for raising capital and trading financial instruments rooted in the cooperative and mutual sector. This platform enables institutions—and, subject to regulatory approval, individuals—to invest in cooperative financial instruments. It is designed to uphold cooperative values and principles, ensuring investments align with these ideals while safeguarding coops against liquidity risk. Together, we're turning capital into a force for good – where capital empowers people, rather than people empowering capital.

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Global Reach and Accessibility
Coop Exchange aims to revolutionise how cooperatives access capital by offering a global platform for raising funds. This initiative will enable cooperatives worldwide to connect with a broader investor base, fostering international investment and cooperation. By breaking down geographical barriers, the platform significantly expands opportunities for growth and development within the cooperative sector.
Adherence to Cooperative Principles
The core of Coop Exchange's mission is to ensure that cooperatives can engage in capital raising and trading without compromising their values. The platform is designed to align financial activities with the cooperative principles, ensuring integrity, member control, and mutual benefit. This commitment protects the unique identity and values of cooperatives in the global market.
Dame Pauline Green

The issue of capital will always be a dilemma, but Coop Exchange addresses this. It’s a modern, clever, innovative, digital approach that keeps co-op ownership in the hands of members while allowing a co-op itself to raise capital and grow.

Dame Pauline Green
ICA President (2009 to 2015) and Coop Exchange Board Director

Why

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Why (do we need a) Coop Exchange?
Why Coop Exchange? Because the world isn't just waiting for change - it's actively undergoing transformation, and Coop Exchange is ideally placed to propel this evolution forward. With a storied legacy spanning over 150 years, and from across the globe, cooperatives have consistently demonstrated their prowess in cultivating sustainable, ethically-driven enterprises led by their members and serving their communities. They stand as the natural home for investors eager to enhance their portfolios with genuine ESG and Impact Investments – long before those phrases were even coined. However, despite their rich heritage, prior to Coop Exchange, the concept of securing transformative capital for cooperatives might have seemed like a distant dream. Now, Coop Exchange will make it a vibrant reality.
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Our Mission and Vision

Our vision is of a future where Coop Exchange will accelerate the move to an increasing number of publicly owned enterprises operating on cooperative principles because our platform and processes will reduce the cost of doing so – technology costs, regulatory costs and compliance while at the same time not losing sight of those cooperative values and principles which serve our communites and planet. We see demand for publicly owned organisations increasing as sustainable investing using ESG criteria becomes the dominant paradigm – the ‘S’ for social and ‘G’ for governance fits better within member-owned cooperatives. Similarly, we expect increased demand from certain demographics (for example, future generations) for funds (through their pension, or otherwise) that contribute to reducing wealth inequality, leading to the majority of investment money flowing into funds that invest in sustainable, purpose-orientated organisations, like cooperatives.

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Our Mission
To be a global platform coop that aims to address wealth inequality by: growing the cooperative economy by providing coops with access to new sources of capital; and by enabling everyone to invest in tradable coop shares.
Increased demand from the public
Last year, the Co-operators polled to find over 60% of [their] market is interested in aligning their investments with their values. Victor van Hoorn, Executive Director of Eurosif, the association that promotes sustainable investment across Europe, says that, "every single survey of retail investors reports their desire to see their savings invested in a way that aligns with their values, and that is particularly true among younger investors."
A larger pool of sustainable businesses to invest in
The current paradigm where just 0.08% of all (for profit) businesses are publicly owned is on the cusp of change and Coop Exchange is perfectly placed to drive that change. We see a future where more private businesses use a conversion to coop as an exit strategy, thereby offering a substantially greater number of investable businesses for sustainable fund managers.
Impact Investing
This new paradigm goes hand in hand with a new focus on impact investing and a need to recalibrate how businesses operate to meet increased global challenges. These new challenges call for new and innovative solutions to help meet them. For example, the World Bank states that “According to our estimates, 600 million jobs will be needed by 2030 to absorb the growing global workforce, which makes SME development a high priority for many governments around the world” . While some estimate that a new USD 3.5 trillion economy is needed by 2050 in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. While there may be room to debate when exactly this change will fully materialise, that this change is coming is, in our view, inevitable – the scale of the current global problems require bold and ambitious solutions of the type of Coop Exchange.

Board of Directors

The board of Coop Exchange comprises a distinguished assembly of leaders hailing from backgrounds predominantly within the cooperative and mutual sector. This dynamic board blends unparalleled financial insight, cooperative governance proficiency, and sustainability acumen to steer Coop Exchange toward a transformative future in the financial sector.

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  • Aaron Stewart

    Executive Director and Group General Counsel

  • Barry O'Dwyer

    Non Executive Director

  • Ben Reid OBE

    Non Executive Director and Chair

  • Daniel Sinclair

    Non Executive Director

  • Dame Pauline Green

    Non Executive Director

  • Ritchie Tout

    Non Executive Director

  • Shaun Tarbuck

    Non Executive Director

  • Stephen Gill

    Executive Director and CEO

Coops

There are 3 million cooperatives across the world, and cooperative members represent at least 12% of humanity.

Sustainable
Cooperatives, by nature, are rooted in the principles of ESG criteria, making them one of the most aligned business forms with ESG ideals. Cooperatives, with their community focus and democratic governance, align with ESG principles and are ideal for sustainable and socially responsible business. They fit well in SDG and ESG frameworks due to their commitment to social justice, environmental stewardship, and economic equity.
Sizeable Sector
The largest 300 coops have an overall turnover of 2,409.41 billion USD (2021) with most of the enterprises operating in the agricultural sector (105 enterprises) and insurance sector (96 enterprises), followed by wholesale and retail trade (57 enterprises).
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