London-based Net Purpose bags €11.56M for its investment platform for sustainable investors

London-based Net Purpose, a platform for sustainable investors, announced on Wednesday that it has raised £10M (approximately €11.56M) in a Series A round of funding. The company powers close to $50B (approximately €57.83B) in sustainable funds.

Net Purpose says it will use the funds to expand its product and team, and launch new features.

Investors in this round

The round was led by Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF Partners), following a year of record growth. ETF Partners supports talented entrepreneurs and management teams with investment capital and experience. Its funds come from institutional investors, global corporations, and family offices.

The investment also saw participation from M-Tech Capital and Exceptional Ventures, as well as existing backers Jim O’Neill, former Chair of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Kevin Gould, co-founder IHS Markit, the Louis Family, Illuminate Financial, and Revent.

A data-driven model for sustainable investing

According to Net Purpose, the transition to sustainable investing is a significant revolution of capitalism that has ever taken place. The UN Principles for Responsible Investment state that $120T has been committed to investments that are made responsibly, with allocations increasing by 22 per cent annually.

However, it is currently difficult for investors to assess how their portfolio is doing in relation to climate and other sustainable goals. Contrast this with the wealth of financial data that investors can use to maximise financial return – the market for this is now estimated to be worth $33B. Currently, investors rely on stated, estimated, and ESG ratings, which evaluate financial risk rather than social and environmental return.

This is where Net Purpose looks to make a difference. The company claims to have built an investment-grade fact-base of social and environmental performance, with the quality and transparency investors expect of financial data.

Net Purpose offers statistics on a variety of sustainability topics, including firms and all significant investment indexes. These topics include climate, water, waste, gender, financial inclusion, healthcare, and other social issues. In order to guarantee that the platform improves and is in line with sustainability standards, Net Purpose mobilised a group of analysts to power it with a mix of AI and human intelligence. This allowed Net Purpose to collect the “highest” quality data available on the market.

Sam Duncan, Net Purpose co-founder and CEO, says“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 returns. We are proud to arm investors with trusted and transparent data, and we are honoured to power the most sophisticated investors in the world.”

The Net Purpose team is led by Samantha Duncan, co-founder & CEO and former Head of Impact at Leapfrog Investments; Dave Wilson, COO and former COO of Financial Services at IHS Markit; and Alex Woodham, CTO and former VP of Engineering at Constellation AI.