Accenture has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in pulsESG, Inc., a public benefit corporation dedicated to empowering purpose-driven enterprises to manage and improve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) footprint. Backed by $10 million in earlier seed funding from other leading impact-driven investors, pulsESG is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and early investment program that connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps.
This move builds on Accenture’s broader sustainability initiatives with a variety of clients, strategic alliance partners and other international organizations, which includes very early-stage investments in key technologies and services that create value for clients and their broader ecosystem partners, as sustainability continues to solidify as a top issue for all stakeholders.
“We believe that every business must be a sustainable business and that fundamentally changes how companies report and disclose financial data. Now, the next step is to deliver on this opportunity to unlock the full value from, and impact of, measuring and managing for sustainability,” said Peter Lacy, global Sustainability Services lead, global management committee member and chief responsibility officer at Accenture. “We look forward to bringing the capabilities from this strategic investment to our clients, alliances and partners to help improve ESG measurement and performance with greater transparency and assurance being sought across stakeholders.”
Co-founded by Silicon Valley enterprise software veterans Murat Sönmez and Inderjeet Singh, pulsESG provides organizations with a flexible and integrated software as a service (SaaS) platform with both internal data sources and external investor-facing systems to define, measure and report on organizational ESG performance and address issues around ESG data quality and timelines.
Sönmez, CEO and co-founder of pulsESG added, “With a shift toward real-time ESG reporting becoming standard practice for companies worldwide, we designed this platform to be the ultimate system of record for ESG – one that has the flexibility and modularity required of today’s rapidly transitioning regulatory landscape. This investment from Accenture will allow us to scale our platform to new heights as clients navigate the inherent fluidity in ESG analysis.”
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The platform, while at an early stage, has been designed to improve on the quality of ESG collection and integration across the enterprise, including by combining the power of the myriad of support and specialist software players with dashboards and services of major ecosystem and alliance partners. “With features such as model-driven architecture and an end-to-end workflow engine, we offer a new level of information that allows for modifications based on changes in the ESG regulatory landscape and stakeholder needs,” said Singh, president and co-founder of pulsESG.
Recent Accenture research shows that while the majority (78%) of finance leaders are seeking to understand the financial risk to their business that sustainability represents, only 47% have defined key metrics and data sources for their ESG reporting. Together, Accenture and pulsESG will look to build joint product offerings that will enable clients and partners to make more informed decisions and better navigate and respond to the evolving ESG landscape.
“Our investment in pulsESG not only highlights our commitment to scaling new technologies that help our clients solve critical business challenges, but also reinforces our belief in the importance of using innovation for social good,” said Tom Lounibos, managing director of Accenture Ventures. “We look forward to collaborating with pulsESG and driving awareness of its offerings and value proposition among our clients and ecosystem partners around the world.”