Clarity AI Raises $15m to Fuel Expansion of Platform That Empowers Investors to Manage the Societal Impact of Their Portfolios
- DEUTSCHE BÖRSE LEADS FUNDING ROUND – CONDUCTED 100% REMOTELY DUE TO COVID-19
- COMPANY REPORTS RISING DEMAND DURING PERIOD OF SOCIAL UNREST AND VOLATILITY
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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.
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NOTE TO EDITORS
ABOUT CLARITY AI
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.
For more information, visit https://clarity.ai/
ABOUT DEUTSCHE BÖRSE
As an international exchange organisation and innovative market infrastructure provider, Deutsche Börse Group ensures markets characterised by integrity, transparency and stability. With its wide range of products, services and technologies, the Group organises safe and efficient markets for sustainable economies.
Its business areas extend along the entire value chain in exchange trading, including the admission, trading and clearing, and custody of securities and other financial instruments, the dissemination of market data, as well as the management of collateral and liquidity. As a technology company, the Group develops state-of-the-art IT solutions and offers IT systems all over the world.
With around 6,000 employees, the Group has its headquarters in the financial centre of Frankfurt/Rhine-Main, as well as a strong global presence in 38 locations such as Luxembourg, Prague, London, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney.
ABOUT ALMA MUNDI VENTURES
Alma Mundi is a Venture Capital fund investing in B2B tech and Insurtech startups across Europe, the United States and Israel. The investments range from early Seed and Series A, to Series B and later stages. The headquarters are in Madrid and offices in Barcelona, London and Tel Aviv. The portfolio includes startups in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Tel Aviv, San Francisco and New York. They bring value to entrepreneurs by leveraging their LPs, leading European insurers, and a global network, called the Mundi Club, which groups more than 750 C-level executives in more than 50 cities worldwide.
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
2 Harvard 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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