Interview with Alain Boribon from the Citizenfund cooperative

Introduction: Alain Boribon is a serial entrepreneur committed to the transition towards a more desirable world. In 2017, he co-created Citizenfund and has been fully dedicated to it ever since. Alain drives Citizenfund with passion, patience, and perseverance. His ability to generate 1,000 ideas a minute is remarkable, and he always makes time to discuss and share the ins and outs of Citizenfund. His dedication and enthusiasm make him a true driving force behind this inspiring initiative!

What is Citizenfund?  

Citizenfund is a cooperative and participatory investment fund that supports projects with a social or environmental purpose.

This fund stands out for its disruptive nature through several features:

• It broadens its investment scope by introducing cultural or educational projects, prioritizing social or environmental impact over financial returns.

• It adopts a participatory approach where investor-cooperators have the power to choose the projects supported.

• It strives to be transparent, accessible, and non-elitist. With shares available at 50 euros for those under 26 and 250 euros for those 26 and older, Citizenfund ensures each cooperators has one vote regardless of the number of shares held, thus promoting the democratization of investment.

How was Citizenfund born?

Citizenfund was created in 2017 following reflections on the direction of our society and discussions between social entrepreneurs facing funding difficulties. Traditional investors imposed conditions incompatible with the vision of social project leaders. The idea was therefore to create a "cooperative of cooperatives" investing in various social projects with more modest yields and a longer-term horizon. This cooperative would act as one of the first investors in these projects, serving as a reference to facilitate other investments thereafter.