Software developer ESG Flo closed a $5.25 million seed round to automate environmental, social and governance data gathering for manufacturers and real estate firms, the startup tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: Money is still flowing to ESG-related companies, even as the pendulum swings away from the move toward green/socially conscious investing.
How it works: The company provides ESG infrastructure, enabling customers to gather greenhouse gas emissions data and report it to authorities.
- That's different from other ESG software firms that tend to focus on particular sections of that data chain.
Between the lines: "The main reason we can do everything is we are not focused on all sectors. Our focus is on manufacturing or buyers of manufactured products," CEO Patrick Obeid tells Axios.
Driving the news: ESG Flo, which spun out from Bain & Company's Founder's Studio, closed its all-equity round in July.
- Rho Ignition and Tola Capital led, joined by Bain and Contour Venture Partners.
- Rho managing partner Habib Kairouz, Tola venture partner Karolin Beck, and entrepreneur Patrick Quinlan joined ESG Flo's board.
What's next: ESG Flo is building out its machine-learning capabilities.
- "Our biggest fear is becoming another professional service company," Obeid says. "We're investing to avoid the need of having human analysts extract the data."
Read the article Esg Flo 5 million bain esg data reporting.
