Ando

Ando is a San Diego-based digital bank and public benefit corporation, founded in 2019 and officially launched in the United States in January 2021, built around a specific pledge: every dollar a customer deposits is invested only in projects aimed at fighting climate change rather than being lent out for fossil-fuel financing. CEO JP McNeil, who previously founded the solar-financing company Renovate America, leads Ando.

How Ando’s green banking model works

Ando says it channels customer deposits into more than 30 climate-related initiatives spanning categories such as clean energy and sustainable transportation, and lets customers see within the app how their specific deposits are being used across those categories. This transparency feature is central to Ando’s pitch: rather than asking customers to simply trust that their money supports sustainability, the app aims to show the connection directly.

Why Ando was created

Ando’s founders built the company around a specific criticism of traditional banking: that mainstream banks have used customer deposits to help finance fossil-fuel projects, citing a report claiming banks funneled roughly $2.7 trillion into fossil-fuel financing since 2016. Ando positioned itself as a banking alternative for customers who wanted their money kept out of that kind of financing and instead directed specifically toward climate-friendly projects.

Ando as a public benefit corporation

Unlike a traditional bank organized solely to maximize shareholder returns, Ando is structured as a public benefit corporation, a legal business structure that lets a company formally commit to a stated social or environmental mission alongside its financial goals. This structure is increasingly common among mission-driven fintech and banking startups that want their climate or social commitments to carry legal weight rather than existing only as marketing.

How Ando fits the broader challenger-bank landscape

Ando is one of a wave of digital-only “neobanks” and challenger banks that have launched over the past decade, most offering no-fee checking and savings accounts built entirely around a mobile app rather than physical branches. What distinguishes Ando within that broader category is its narrow, explicit focus on climate-friendly deposit use, rather than competing primarily on account fees, interest rates or rewards features the way many other challenger banks do.

Ando’s place among climate-focused fintech products

Ando is part of a small but growing category of climate-focused financial products, which also includes green-themed credit cards, carbon-offsetting investment apps and other sustainability-branded banking services, that have launched as more consumers express interest in aligning their everyday spending and saving with environmental values. What sets a full banking product like Ando apart from narrower green financial products is that it governs where the underlying deposited funds themselves are used, rather than just offsetting a portion of spending after the fact.

FAQs

What makes Ando different from a regular bank? Ando pledges to invest every customer deposit dollar specifically in climate-related projects, such as clean energy and sustainable transportation, rather than financing fossil-fuel projects the way the company says traditional banks have.

When did Ando launch? Ando was founded in 2019 and officially launched its banking service in the United States in January 2021, after a smaller soft launch in late 2020.

Who leads Ando? JP McNeil, who previously founded the solar-financing company Renovate America, serves as Ando’s CEO.

Does Ando charge banking fees? Ando has said it charges customers no fees, a feature common among newer digital-only challenger banks competing against traditional banks’ fee structures.

Is Ando FDIC-insured? Digital banks like Ando typically partner with a chartered bank to provide FDIC-insured deposit accounts rather than holding a banking charter themselves, a standard structure among neobanks and challenger banks operating in the US.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 9, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue