A FinTech startup helping corporates to streamline their ESG reporting has raised a £1.2 million seed round of investment.
Nossa Data was founded by CEO Julianne Flesher and CTO Irina Dumitrescu in 2020 when they repeatedly saw how burdensome ESG disclosure was for companies.
Its software offers companies everything they need to streamline ESG disclosure in a single place. It includes template reporting to the top ESG frameworks including SASB Standards and TCFD; benchmarking of a company’s ESG performance versus its peers; detailed workflow optimisation for peer collaboration; and AI insights.
Over the course of 2021 the team fine-tuned their product even further while working directly with hundreds of the world’s largest corporations through a direct partnership with The Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) set up by the NGO, ShareAction.
The funding was led by Symvan Capital and BGF. The round also brings in prominent angel investors as well as follow-on funding from SFC Capital and Techstars.
“We spoke to the ESG disclosure teams at the world’s largest companies and it was shocking to learn how much time they need to spend on repetitive disclosures,” said Flesher.
“For a large corporation, they are currently expected to respond to about a dozen distinct ESG frameworks – that does not even include the additional ad-hoc investor questionnaires or ESG rating agency requests they receive.
“Getting to work with an emerging standard like the WDI was an amazing opportunity for our team. Our software enabled all 170 WDI disclosing companies including half of the FTSE 100 such as Unilever, Barclays, AstraZeneca, H&M and more to submit their 2021 data on key workforce topics.
“Through this collaboration we have collected thousands of pieces of product feedback that have directly impacted how our product works today.”
With the funding the team will continue to develop its ESG reporting software and improve customer experience and efficiencies.
Michael Theodosiou , investment manager at Symvan Capital, said: “The UK becoming the first G20 country to enshrine TCFD into legislation is a clear demonstration of the increasing importance of ESG disclosures and practices in society, creating a wealth of opportunities for both impact and returns.
“Nossa Data’s thoughtful ‘company-centric’ approach combined with a SaaS tool differentiates them from an increasingly crowded field of investor-centric offerings.
“As early-stage investors, we are also invariably investing in the founders as much as the business, and Julianne and Irina impressed us from the start with passion that is matched with knowledge, pragmatism, and work ethic, and we are excited to be a part of helping them to succeed on their mission.”