EcoVadis, a French environmental performance firm, received 31M euros in venture funding to advance its position in measuring, promoting and improving corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The investment was granted to EcoVadis by global VC firm Partech Ventures on Dec. 14. With the venture funding, EcoVadis hopes to recruit more clients, boost the reliability of its ratings, and invest in core technology initiatives. These investments would include in-house R&D on machine learning and natural language processing as well as start-up partnerships.
“Within this decade, business leaders know they must make radical shifts to remain competitive in increasingly socially-sensitive markets — and to address the formidable challenges facing our planet,” EcoVadis advisory board member John Elkington said. He added, “It’s exciting to see the EcoVadis ratings and platform going mainstream – with growing potential to become the preferred enabler of business and market transformation for the two million businesses operating in global supply chains.”
Established in 2007, EcoVadis services over 30,000 customers in 110 countries. The company provides environmental, ethical and social performance ratings for more than 150 of the world’s top supply chains. With 320 employees worldwide, EcoVadis has grown 50 percent annually in 10 years and remains a top supply chain evaluator for many retailers.
EcoVadis provides companies with customized surveys used to evaluate their current CSR. From there, the company provides a scorecard, showcasing areas of strengths and weakness as well as benchmark comparisons. This scorecard enhances transparency with the internal team as well as other stakeholders. Finally, EcoVadis provides companies with recognition in the form of badges and certificates, which they can use to boast about their positive CSR.