Nossa Data, the fintech start-up that helps corporates streamline their ESG reporting, has raised a £1.2 mln (€1.4 mln) seed round 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.
The start-up was founded by Julianne Flesher (CEO) and Irina Dumitrescu (CTO) in 2020 when they repeatedly saw how burdensome ESG disclosure was for companies.
Nossa Data's software 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.
Nossa Data CEO, Julianne Flesher, said: '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.
'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.'
Over the course of 2021 the team fine-tuned its product still 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.
With the funding the team will continue to develop their 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.'
