- Net Purpose, the first independent fact-base for sustainable investors, has raised £10M in Series A funding
- Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF Partners), a leading climate tech investor, leads the round alongside M-Tech capital and Exceptional Ventures
- The investment will unlock the next stage of growth for the sustainable investment platform and increase its breadth of clients.
LONDON, Oct. 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Net Purpose, a platform for sustainable investors, announces it has raised £10 million in a Series A round led by ETF Partners, following a year of record growth.
The round marks a shift in sustainable investing away from ESG Ratings and towards a high-quality fact-base of social and environmental performance. Net Purpose has built the only independent fact-base in the market, and today powers close to $50 billion in sustainable funds.
The Series A Round will be used to expand its product and team, and launch new features to arm all investors with a complete overview of their sustainability by 2025.
New investors M-Tech Capital and Exceptional Ventures joined the round, and existing investors Jim O’Neill, former Chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Kevin Gould, Co-Founder IHS Markit, the Louis Family, Illuminate Financial, and Revent increased their commitment to Net Purpose and to powering sustainable decisions on enormous scale.
A data-driven model for sustainable investing
The shift towards sustainable investing represents the largest transformation of capitalism the world has ever seen. According to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, $120 trillion is committed to invest sustainably, with allocations growing at 22% year on year.
But it is still extremely challenging for investors to measure the performance of their portfolio against climate and other sustainable goals. This is in stark contrast to the wealth of financial data that investors can draw upon to optimise financial return, the market for which is currently valued at $33 billion. Today, investors rely on a combination of reported and estimated data and ESG ratings, which often measure financial risk, not social and environmental return.
Net Purpose has built an investment-grade fact-base of social and environmental performance, with the quality and transparency investors expect of financial data. The company provides data across a range of sustainability themes, including climate, water, waste, gender, financial inclusion, healthcare, and other social themes, and covers companies and all major investment indices. The platform is powered by a combination of AI and human intelligence, which has helped Net Purpose to achieve the highest quality data in the market, and mobilise a crowd of next-generation analysts to ensure the platform evolves and aligns with sustainability standards.
Net Purpose is on a mission to make impact measurement effortless for all investors. Having seen significant traction with some of the world’s most sophisticated investors since its launch in 2019, the company is now working to help investors mobilise billions more for sustainable investing. Net Purpose was named Runner Up, ESG Data Provider of the Year in 2022 after just two years, placing above MSCI, Preqin, Factset and Moody’s.
Sam Duncan, Net Purpose Founder and CEO, said “In the race to achieve climate and other sustainable goals, the sophistication of sustainable and impact investing is rapidly advancing. Investors are demanding the facts on the social and environmental performance of their funds, just like they do financial return. We are proud to arm investors with trusted and transparent data, and we are honoured to power the most sophisticated investors in the world.”
Tomer Strikovsky, Partner at ETF Partners, said: “We are great believers in the power of data to drive meaningful change. By utilising the Net Purpose datasets, investors can now drive the shift in capital allocation into impact and climate-friendly assets. Net Purpose has established the highest quality dataset in the market, and is a pioneer in new and increasingly urgent themes. We are looking forward to the road ahead.”
Lord Jim O’Neill, Net Purpose investor and former Chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: “Capitalism is changing on a global scale. Profit with purpose investing is the new way forward, for companies, and for investors around the world. To make this moment matter, we must have a way to quantify purpose, and we must establish a global source of facts that investors can trust and understand.”
Ashby Monk, Net Purpose Board Member and Executive Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long Term Investing, said: “All investors need real data on the outcomes of their investment portfolios to make sound long-term investment decisions. Net Purpose is filling a critical gap in this market, and we’re incredibly excited for this next phase.”
Notes to Editors
For further details, please contact netpurpose@wearesevenhills.com.
About Net Purpose
Founded in 2019, Net Purpose is a platform for sustainable investors. Net Purpose streams facts on the social and environmental performance of companies and investment portfolios to power close to $50 billion in sustainable funds. The Net Purpose team leverages decades of experience in impact, financial data and tech, and is led by Samantha Duncan, Co-Founder & CEO and former Head of Impact at Leapfrog Investments; Dave Wilson, COO and former COO Financial Services at IHS Markit; and Alex Woodham, CTO and former VP Engineering at Constellation AI.
About ETF Partners
Founded in 2006, ETF Partners supports talented entrepreneurs and management teams with investment capital and experience. Our funds come from institutional investors, global corporations, and family offices. We create value by investing in technology companies that make a difference. We call it Sustainability through Innovation.
For more information, visit https://etfpartners.capital/
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