Cogo to support inaugural ‘City-Tech.Tokyo’ event

Showcasing 300 sustainably-minded startups, the event is expected to draw 10,000 participants from 100 cities across 30 countries in a bid to “realise a sustainable society” and “create opportunities for tangible collaboration” which the event’s executive committee - including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry - expects to “lead to a new urban vision based on diverse ideas and technologies”.

Cogo’s technology empowers people and businesses globally to measure, understand and reduce their carbon footprint through their everyday banking apps and accounting software. Cogo currently works with twelve large banks globally, with plans to double this in the next twelve months.

“We’re excited to support the very first ‘City-Tech.Tokyo’ event and share the planet-changing potential of our technology with the Japanese business community. It’s time to change how our money works, and Cogo is proud to be enabling this change,” says Kaz Udagawa, Country Head for Japan, Cogo. 

The startup’s participation comes off the back of its rapid expansion into Asia, including establishing offices in Japan and partnerships with Asian FinTech innovators Moneythor and Moneytree. Cogo is also piloting a carbon footprint calculator with some of OCBC Bank’s customers (Singapore).

‍How Cogo works…

Cogo’s Personal and Business Carbon Manager solutions enrich transactional data - such as spend on electricity and fuel - and assign a carbon emissions to each transaction. Cogo can then calculate a carbon footprint for the individual or business. In addition, customers can also access tailored advice around the actions they can take to make easy, positive changes to help lower their carbon footprint.

For businesses, the optimised end-to-end solution also enables customers to share their progress which can help them retain and attract customers, having a positive impact on the business’ bottom line.

Rising climate concerns and expectations

“Asian consumers have expressed rising climate concerns and expectations,” states Kaz. Late last year, Kantar revealed that an astounding 58% of Asian consumers feel they have been personally affected by environmental issues. What’s more, Kantar goes on to say that “Consumers want brands to embrace this new mindset and sensibility and help them in their journey. They are looking for social and environmental purpose. And the most active of consumers are influencing others to start thinking this way as well.”

In Hong Kong, 68% of people have said they’d like to take more action when it comes to sustainable consumption (Sustainable Consumption Report 2018 by HK Consumer Council); while 85% of Singaporean consumers would like access to carbon footprint information within their bank app (DBS Consumer Sustainability Survey 2021).

“As consumer focus shifts, we believe our technology is set to play a huge role in the attraction and retention of customers over the coming months,” believes Kaz.

Good for the planet; good for business

The solution is good for the planet; and good for business - allowing banks and credit card issuers to capitalise on the full potential of transactional data by enabling them to accurately segment customers who might be interested in ‘green’ loans or banking products. This increases the sustainability of customer portfolios; assists with compliance around ever-tightening legal requirements, including possible climate related financial disclosure; and comes with significant brand benefits from being a sustainability leader. 

“We’re in discussions with several of Japan’s major banks and understand that there is significant interest in carbon footprint integration into their everyday banking apps. Our message to banks and accounting platforms is a simple one - ‘first movers’ who enable their customers to make more conscious spending decisions will corner a definite competitive advantage,” concludes Kaz. 

Visit Cogo at booth number E17.