- DEUTSCHE BÖRSE LEADS FUNDING ROUND - CONDUCTED 100% REMOTELY DUE TO COVID-19
- COMPANY REPORTS RISING DEMAND DURING PERIOD OF SOCIAL UNREST AND VOLATILITY
Clarity AI announced today that it has closed a USD $15 million funding round led by Deutsche Börse AG and co-investor Mundi Ventures. Clarity AI empowers investors to manage the impact of their portfolios through a proprietary technology platform that leverages big data and machine learning to assess sustainability for all societal stakeholders.
“Our purpose is simple: to measure the impact of companies on our society and planet,” said Rebeca Minguela, Founder and CEO of Clarity AI. “Investors attempting to evaluate impact have faced fragmented and unreliable data, inconsistent subjective definitions, and a lack of standards and tools for comprehensive analysis. Historically it has been too hard and resource-intensive to get accurate and transparent insights. Clarity AI provides a solution for that.”
Since its founding in 2017, Clarity AI has attracted a client network representing in excess of $3 trillion of assets and funding from investors, including Kibo Ventures, Founders Fund, Seaya Ventures and Matthew Freud. The company has built the most reliable tech platform on social and environmental impact, featuring more than 30,000 companies, 198 countries, 187 local governments and over 200,000 funds. The company uses proprietary technology and algorithms to produce transparent assessments for investors that are the most consistent and comprehensive available.
The “Sustainable Investment” market has grown 34% in the last two years and now represents one third of total global assets under management (AUM) – $30.7 trillion (of a total of $79.2 trillion).1 This rapid growth comes as research shows that 81% of investors want to better understand and improve the impact performance of their investments, with millennials (in particular) demanding greater social impact transparency in their portfolios.2
In the last six months, Clarity AI has seen a significant increase in demand for its services, including signing clients with eight times the assets under management as in the preceding period.
Minguela added: “2020 has seen extraordinary volatility and uncertainty – from COVID-19 to social justice protests. It has never been more important for investors to have accurate insights on the true impact of the companies in which they place their trust and their money. That is why we are scaling up our business to enable investors to identify and support those companies helping to solve society’s biggest challenges.”
The $15 million investment will drive Clarity AI’s sustainable expansion plans, including scaling-up investment in proprietary technology and AI, as well as integrating with the world’s largest financial services platforms. This approach will make it even quicker and easier for investors and corporations to analyze and report sustainability and impact.
Deutsche Börse AG led the funding round, underscoring the strong alignment of the Clarity AI product offering with Deutsche Börse’s expanding presence in the sustainability space and the importance of accelerating the growth of a European-focused Impact and ESG technology platform. Clarity AI and Deutsche Börse are also exploring potential collaboration opportunities in various Deutsche Börse business areas, including Qontigo, a leading provider of indices and analytics.
Sebastian Ceria, CEO of Qontigo, said: “This partnership reflects our mutual commitment to the ongoing enhancement of sustainable investing and the application of the latest technology in pursuit of this goal. We were very impressed by Rebeca and her team’s vision for Clarity AI and the advanced technology platform they have created. We are excited to be in a partnership that puts impact at the heart of investment.”
Clarity AI has received widespread recognition for its positive impact and innovative approach, including being selected as a 2020 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and receiving awards from the Harvard Innovation Lab and funding from Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Research and Innovation program.
Clarity AI is a global fintech company that empowers investors to manage the impact of their portfolios through a proprietary technology platform that leverages big data and machine learning to assess sustainability for all societal stakeholders. Founded in 2017 by Rebeca Minguela, Clarity AI has offices in the US, UK and Spain and a client network with over $3T assets under management (AUM). The company has a team of over 100 technology, sustainability and research experts with collective experience from leading organizations, businesses and research institutions including NASA, the World Bank, Google, Netflix, McKinsey & Company, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Harvard, M.I.T and more.
Rebeca Minguela is the Founder and CEO of Clarity AI. Previously, she led the Global Digital Transformation Program at Santander Bank after founding and leading Blink Booking, a last-minute hotel booking app acquired by Groupon in 2013, a company she moved to as Senior Director of Product and Technology thereafter. Rebeca has also worked at Bain Capital Private Equity, Boston Consulting Group, German Aerospace Agency, Siemens and IBM. She holds an MBA degree with distinction from Harvard Business School and has won several awards, including Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology in 2019 and 2020, Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017 and European Young Leader in 2018.
1 Global Asset Management 2018: The Digital Metamorphosis, https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/global-asset-management-2018-digital-metamorphosis; Global Sustainable Investment Alliance: 2018 Global Sustainable Investment Review, http://www.gsi-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSIR_Review2018.3.28.pdf
2Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance: Institutional Investor Survey 2020, https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/03/25/institutional-investor-survey-2020/
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