startgreen capital | private equity | sustainable investments
Investment in data quality for sustainable impact
With Laura Rooseboom, Co-founder and Managing Partner, and Dylan Perales, Investment Manager and Sustainability Lead.
StartGreen Capital is one of the largest impact fund managers in the Netherlands. Since 2006, the organization has been working together with impact entrepreneurs to build a sustainable economy, an economy that does not exhaust itself and in which everyone can participate to their full potential. StartGreen uses Worldfavor’s Sustainable Investments solution to simplify sustainability monitoring and streamline reporting.
CHALLENGES
Before Worldfavor, StartGreen’s workload was unmanageable due to manual management of its data as the operations and data points grew, alongside new sustainability laws and regulations like the SFDR.
Solution
StartGreen uses Worldfavor’s Sustainable Investments solution to collect, organize, and deploy sustainability data from portfolio companies, allowing them to transfer the current collections of data and performance metrics between systems, ensuring their reliability and compliance.
Results
By using Worldfavor, StartGreen has seen significant improvements in data quality, enabling precise CO2 calculation and deeper insights into portfolio companies, leading to more accurate and efficient data management.
About
Who is StartGreen Capital?
StartGreen, a leading impact fund manager in the Netherlands, champions sustainable progress through innovation and supports entrepreneurs who aim for both financial and social returns. With a focus on sustainability, StartGreen offers tailored investments, acting as a financial catalyst to foster a renewable economy. Their portfolio companies each contribute to at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal, concentrating on energy transition, local and circular economies, diversity, and inclusion. By providing a mix of loans, equity investments, and crowdsourcing through dedicated team support for each fund, StartGreen ensures a unique and effective investment approach.
''There are many start-ups in the market that are jumping on the demand for sustainability data, but the question remains of whether they will still exist in two years' time. Worldfavor has shown that they live up to what they say they deliver, and the organization seemed future-proof to us.''
annika hansson, Sustainability controller
Challenges
Overcome data management challenges for enhanced sustainability compliance
Previously, StartGreen managed its data using Excel files, but with significant growth in operations and data points, alongside new sustainability laws and regulations like the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), their workload became unmanageable. They sought a new solution for collecting, organizing, and deploying sustainability data that would allow them to transfer existing datasets and KPIs, ensuring business continuity. As a sustainable fund manager, maintaining accurate and robust data administration was essential for demonstrating their reliability and compliance.
In their search for the right solution, StartGreen mainly focused on:
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The simplicity of moving data into and out of the system as well as the capability for users to input key performance indicators themselves.
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How easily the software can connect with and work alongside other software applications by integrations.
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The ability to calculate emission factors for environmental impact assessment.
Solution
Simplified sustainability monitoring and streamlined reporting
After reviewing eight potential partners, StartGreen chose Worldfavor and its Sustainable Investments solution, thanks to its adaptability and investor-focused features the company received initial start-up guidance, facilitating a quick learning curve for the platform's intuitive interface. Inven Capital’s investment manager and sustainability lead, Dylan Perales, states that other parties focus on large companies and offer solutions where you as a fund manager cannot collect the data of all your portfolio companies in an orderly manner. Worldfavor offer these features without them immediately needing to embark on a development process.
The transition enabled StartGreen to:
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Leverage the ability to import large volumes of data through a web system, enhancing data management efficiency.
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Utilize the flexibility to add custom KPIs, ensuring tailored sustainability tracking.
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Conducted training sessions and distributed informational documents to aid portfolio company onboarding.
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Address onboarding challenges in busy portfolio companies, establishing a foundation for efficient future reporting and time savings.
Results
Accurate and efficient data management
StartGreen has seen a significant improvement in data quality, notably calculating a precise CO2 prevention figure of 351,150 tons for 2021. This clarity helped identify and correct errors, such as typos and incorrect figures, enhancing the audit process and providing deeper insights into portfolio companies. Additionally, the transition from Excel to Worldfavor has streamlined interactions with portfolio companies. While Excel's limitations previously prevented direct data entry by entrepreneurs, Worldfavor's user-friendly platform now facilitates their active participation in data collection, leading to more accurate and efficient data management.
The Sustainable Investments solution has lead to the following results for StartGreen:
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Precisely calculated CO2 prevention of 351,150 tons for 2021.
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Identified and corrected data inaccuracies, enhancing overall data quality.
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Smoothed the audit process, providing deeper insights into portfolio companies.
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Transitioned from Excel to Worldfavor, streamlining data collection and management.
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Enabled direct data entry by entrepreneurs, ensuring more accurate data collection.
worldfavor sustainable investments
Future-proof your portfolio ESG
- Integrate ESG and monitor performance
- Track SFDR, CSRD, and voluntary initiatives
- Generate reports with a click
- Portfolio enablement tools and guidance
