Paris-based EcoVadis, a collaborative platform that allows companies to assess the environmental and social performance of their suppliers, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $500M (approximately €478.77M) in a fresh round of funding.
According to a statement, the round is the largest equity fundraising for a sustainability data SaaS company to date. EcoVadis has also acquired the status of a “unicorn” as per reports.
With this round, the company has now raised a total capital of over $725M.
Sustainability ratings provider
Founded in 2007 by Frederic Trinel and Pierre Francois Thaler, EcoVadis aims to provide globally trusted business sustainability ratings. Businesses rely on EcoVadis’ knowledge and evidence-based assessments to track and improve their business and trading partners’ sustainability performance.
EcoVadis’ scorecards, benchmarks, carbon action tools, and analytics help companies improve their environmental, social, and ethical policies across 200 industries and 175 countries.
Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Unilever, LVMH, Salesforce, Bridgestone, BASF, and JPMorgan are just a few of the 95,000 companies who work with EcoVadis to promote global resilience, sustainable growth, and good impact.
EcoVadis recent growth
The company reports that it has witnessed rapid growth over the past 12 months. EcoVadis’ revenue grew 50 per cent and its global workforce reached 1,300 employees. Besides, 15,000 companies engaged with EcoVadis’ new Carbon Action Module and more than 500,000 companies used EcoVadis IQ.
EcoVadis IQ screens supply chain and vendors, mapping supplier risk landscape for ethical, social, and environmental risk, and performance signals. The EcoVadis Carbon Action Module offers sustainable procurement and climate change leaders insights on supplier GHG/carbon management practices, as well as a toolset for prioritising, engaging, and driving emissions reductions to accomplish decarbonisation targets.
In addition to its growth, EcoVadis has also become a preferred partner in integrating sustainability data into all-important corporate decision points throughout its network of enterprise, procurement, finance, and risk management platforms. The company currently has collaborations with Microsoft, SAP, Celonis, Coupa, Taulia, and 40 others.
Capital utilisation
EcoVadis says it will use the funds to accelerate its global scale up, deepen its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, make strategic acquisitions, and fulfil its vision as a purpose-led company.
Co-founder Frederic Trinel says, “This investment is a validation of EcoVadis’ model for scaling impact across global value chains, despite the pandemic, geopolitical or financial headwinds.”
“We continue to experience record demand as more companies are empowered to integrate the planet and society into their business operations. We expect this investment to enable us to build on our traction to meet companies – including SMEs and private companies – at any stage of their sustainability journey, and collaboratively drive improvement in practices and impact at scale,” adds Trinel.
Investors in this round
The current round was led by Astorg, a European private equity fund, and BeyondNetZero, the climate-focused fund from General Atlantic. Singapore-based GIC Private Limited and Princeville Capital also participated in this round.
Rhea Hamilton, MD at BeyondNetZero, says, “We invest in companies that have the potential to combat climate change at scale. We believe EcoVadis has all the critical elements to make a global impact and a meaningful contribution to the net-zero transition, including a high-quality business model, strong leadership, innovative technology and a bold vision for driving ESG-oriented transformations across supply chains and industries. We look forward to partnering with its management team as we aim to further accelerate the company’s global expansion and climate impact.”
BeyondNetZero is the climate investing venture of General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm. The firm invests in growth companies delivering innovative climate solutions that have the potential to meet and exceed net zero emissions targets, with a focus on decarbonisation, energy efficiency, resource conservation, and emissions management.
Astorg is a European PE firm with over €17B of assets under management. It works with entrepreneurs and management teams to acquire market-leading global companies headquartered in Europe or the US, and provide them with the strategic guidance, governance, and capital to achieve their growth plans.
General Atlantic is also a growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 445 companies since its inception in 1980. The firm currently has over $84B in assets under management, and more than 215 investment professionals.
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