Finance companies launch digital sustainability reporting tool for SMEs

Source: World Wide Generation (WWG), 18 December 2020

finnCap Group, leading adviser and broker to ambitious growth companies, both public and private, is pleased to announce a partnership with leading sustainability fintech company World Wide Generation (WWG) in order to provide businesses with a new digital sustainability monitoring and measurement App, Company Tracker, to measure and improve their social, economic and environmental impact, which is also mapped to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Company Tracker is an App on a global multi-stakeholder platform called G17Eco, which empowers companies to monitor and measure their sustainability risks and opportunities, enhancing their credentials with investors who increasingly are demanding companies prove their impact on society, the economy, and the environment. The App also incorporates metrics from finnCap’s recently launched ESG Scorecard, which provides small and mid-cap quoted companies with an objective means of measuring their ESG performance against key policies, standards, and frameworks.

The combination of Company Tracker and the ESG Scorecard makes this reporting tool especially useful for smaller listed companies who want to systematically demonstrate how investable they are from an ESG standpoint.

The launch of Company Tracker follows new research highlighting that SMEs’ recognition of the importance of ESG has not translated into actual practice. A recent study by the QCA found that while 92% of companies considered themselves knowledgeable about ESG, actual practices suggest that the real number is considerably lower. This new partnership between finnCap and WWG aims to close this gap, facilitating the coherent and evidence-based reporting of ESG activities that investors want from firms.

Companies are being increasingly scrutinised on their ESG performance and WWG is the technology partner for the UK Government and City of London backed Sustainable Development Capital Initiative. Further to the finnCap partnership, WWG has been securing major global partnerships to support the whole ecosystem of companies (big and small), assurers, rating agencies, data providers, investors. Most recently the United Nations Data Hub has also mandated WWG as their technology partner for cities and governments to also report their sustainability data through the G17Eco platform.

Sam Smith, Chief Executive of finnCap Group plc, said: “We are delighted to begin this partnership with WWG to help businesses realise their growth ambitions responsibly by improving their ESG performance. We believe nothing similar exists in the marketplace, so we are proud to take a pioneering approach that helps companies solve a complex problem which is of increasing importance.”

Raymond Greaves, Head of Research at finnCap Group plc and creator of the finnCap ESG Scorecard, said: “This partnership is a fantastic way to build on the recent launch of our ESG Scorecard, which provides businesses and investors with 15 factors to assess their performance. The new offering incorporating Company Tracker enables enhanced navigation and compliance to globally recognised standards and further helps companies turn what could be a difficult exercise into something that can be used to develop, execute and promote their ESG credentials internally and externally.”

Manjula Lee, founder and CEO of World Wide Generation, said: “Through this collaboration with finnCap we want to play our part in ensuring that even during the pandemic, businesses are able to get access to the tools they need to define their purpose, put sustainability at the core of their business model, become resilient and help get them in front of the investors as soon as possible for scale-up. We want to make sustainability reporting literally and “acronymically” SIMPLE (strategic, interconnected, meaningful, purposeful, long-term, educative). I’m also particularly excited that two female CEO Founders got this ambitious strategy off the ground for the UK.

Forming this coalition with finnCap is a pivotal turning point not only in our, World Wide Generation’s future, but in the future of all business, society and environments. One thing that this past year has made clear, is the necessity of a human response needed in business and with that the importance of the S in ESG. Coupled with the research the team at finnCap have undertaken, finding businesses keen to engage in sustainability reporting but lacking the tools and savoir-faire our offer at WWG has never proved more prudent.

Be prepared for 2021, this collaboration between World Wide Generation and finnCap is going to launch the sustainability game onto an entirely new playfield, and we are going to take you all with us!