Bruce Davis on creating Abundance, co-founding £1bn Zopa, inventing a whiskey and the secret social life of money

Bruce Davis is co-founder of Abundance, a revolutionary business that raises money for green energy projects through peer-to-peer investing: Wind Turbines, Solar, Hydro, that sort of thing.

Bruce was also co-founder of the world’s first peer-to-peer lending platform Zopa (a place you can lend your money to others directly) which has gone on to do over a billion pounds-worth of transactions.

He’s one of the most prominent figures in the world of alternative finance, and I myself have invested in multiple projects through Abundance (disclaimer: your capital is at risk and this is not an endorsement). We talk about its conception and how it works in great detail.

Bruce also holds an enviable claim to fame. Namely, he invented a whiskey: Monkey Shoulder. You may have drunk it in pubs and bars, but you will have also seen or tried two other drinks he helped create. Sailor Jerry spiced rum and Hendrick’s Gin. We discuss how he did this and what’s made all of them so popular.

What’s really amazing though and revealed in this podcast is that all of Bruce’s insights stem from a deep interest in Anthropology and Sociology. While it was not his academic background – he read Classics at University – Bruce worked as an Anthropologist for over 15 years both inside companies and for companies.

We talk about what this means, how entrepreneurs today can apply the same techniques and thinking to business ideas, and also how one Polish Sociologist in particular, Zygmunt Bauman and his concept of Liquid Life, is the core of much of Bruce’s work.

Take a look at Abundance Investment and its green energy projects that you can invest in today here