FuturePlus Secures a 7-Figure Upround and Partners With Virgin StartUp, Teaching Businesses to Profitably Integrate Sustainability Into Their Operations
The Sustainability Group, developers of sustainability management and ESG reporting platform FuturePlus, has closed its latest upround with follow-on and new investments from Two Magnolias, HNW individuals and family offices
Overfunding in this round, The Sustainability Group secured a 5x increase in its valuation in just under 3 years, taking its total investment to £2.7 million
The Sustainability Group will invest the funds into the development of the FuturePlus platform and product portfolio, onboard new staff and sustain client growth through marketing and PR
FuturePlus is rapidly expanding its global footprint, having established a presence in the USA, The Caribbean, Australia, Mauritius and Ukraine, in addition to its existing client base in the UK and EMEA
FuturePlus clients have collectively set over 4,200 sustainability ambitions and achieved more than 2,700 of these goals, demonstrating significant and continuous progress in their ambition scores
The Virgin StartUp Community immediately benefits from the FuturePlus platform, learning how to integrate sustainability as a core operational function and build business resilience
The Sustainability Group adds two new Board Members: Ashish Devi-King as Chairman and Darren Smith as Board Advisor
The Sustainability Group, developers of the sustainability management and ESG reporting platform FuturePlus, has overfunded in its latest 7-figure upround with follow-on and new investments from Two Magnolias, high net worth individuals and family offices. The funds were secured amidst a growing decline in global climate tech investment, according to Dealroom. However, The Sustainability Group has increased its valuation 5x since it launched three years ago, bringing the total investment raised to £2.7 million.
The Sustainability Group will use the funds to continue to invest into the development of the FuturePlus platform and product portfolio, onboard new staff and sustain client growth through marketing and PR.
Over the past year, FuturePlus has grown its client base by 50% and its workforce by 29%. It currently has over 300 clients from a wide variety of industries, including finance, hospitality, technology, the built environment and retail. FuturePlus is rapidly expanding its global footprint, having established a presence in the USA, the Caribbean, Australia, Mauritius and Ukraine, in addition to its existing client base in the UK and EMEA.
FuturePlus' global clients are continuously managing their sustainability ambitions in the mission to become better organisations across five themes: Climate, Economic, Diversity & Inclusion, Social and Environment. Given the global demand for risk management procedures and policies measured against financial metrics, clients using the platform can actively address ESG concerns with accuracy, particularly as the burden of proof becomes ever more prevalent for all stakeholders. Clients who enjoy the positive impact of the platform include: Soho House, Moda Living Management, Lore Group, London and Regional, England and Wales Cricket Board, Football Foundation, Totally Money, With Intelligence, and partners such as Sustainable Ventures, CorpCare, International Real Estate Partners (IREP) and Sustainable Spa Association.
FuturePlus has also joined the Virgin StartUp Community alongside other established businesses such as Notion, Krystal, Fiverr, Virgin Money, HubSpot, Sage, and Dell Technologies to form a brand new community where early stage startups and entrepreneurs can access guidance, 1:1 mentoring, events and online learning and resources to build their growing businesses.
FuturePlus is the the only platform that makes sustainability and ESG management and reporting accessible, affordable, and achievable for every business and investment, and by joining the Virgin StartUp Community is complementing its mission to support UK businesses to build responsibly and equitably across its five themes.
Over the last year, FuturePlus' clients have collectively set over 4,200 sustainability ambitions and achieved more than 2,700 of these goals, demonstrating a continuous and significant progress in their ambition scores. This success proves that the FuturePlus model effectively helps companies manage and improve their sustainability maturity rather than merely measuring historical data, ultimately leading to long-term positive impacts and enhanced business resilience.
FuturePlus also measures its own sustainability using its platform and can demonstrate that it is currently making a positive impact in 16 of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and has reduced its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 36%.
The FuturePlus assessment consists of simple yet rigorous indicators that are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and built on recognised sustainability standards, ESG certification indexes, and industry frameworks.
Alexandra Smith, Co-Founder and Partner at FuturePlus, comments: "Our growth momentum this year has been tremendous, and we're set to continue on this trajectory thanks to the support of our investors. The importance of ESG data and insights being both verifiable and forward-looking will only become increasingly important, and we are thrilled that we are addressing this for not only our clients but the capital markets and the new community created by Virgin StartUp. They have all recognised the power of FuturePlus' unique approach to sustainability for businesses of all sizes worldwide and the importance of enabling companies to consistently track, measure and improve their sustainability through incremental and ongoing improvements."
The Sustainability Group has also expanded its Board of Directors to bring in additional insights, skills, and opportunities to support its accelerated growth phase, with Non-Executive Director, CEO and Founder of Ridgeback Partners, Ashish Devi-King, becoming Chairman. Ridgeback has raised >$25m USD for disruptive technology businesses to date. In addition, Darren Smith, previously Head of Asia Pacific Consulting at Wood Mackenzie and a partner at CMAI (later acquired by US data giant IHS), has been appointed as a Board Advisor.
Alexandra Smith, Co-Founder and Partner at FuturePlusDuet London
Mike Penrose, Co-Founder and Partner at FuturePlus, adds: "With our product development roadmap for 2024 and beyond, we are able to consistently enable customers to constantly manage the financial demands implied by ESG regulations both locally and internationally. Our platform empowers businesses to manage risk and assess how to address sustainability concerns effectively. Our expanded Board will help see the deployment of our products and the ongoing innovation to standardise the approach to managing and reporting sustainability for our global customer base. Darren brings first-hand experience in scaling a data business to exit and a deep understanding of enterprise requirements for large multi-territory clients, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Ashish has worked closely with us for almost three years, navigating us through our fundraises, which have seen strong valuation growth for our shareholders, despite challenging market conditions. His strategic guidance has also contributed to our success to date."
Mike Penrose, Co-Founder and Partner at FuturePlusDuet London
Ashish Devi-King, Chairman at The Sustainability Group, continues: "After having met a plethora of poorly thought-through ESG concepts with limited data potential, FuturePlus demonstrated strategic rigour, forward-thinking tech architecture and an intuitive, data-driven UX that works with any company. Therefore, it's no surprise that the month-on-month revenue trending was one of the best that I had seen, and that the valuation has grown 5x from seed to the current and overfunded round closing today."
Darren Smith, Board Advisor at The Sustainability Group, concludes: "After many years in the consulting industry, I noticed a growing need in client companies for an achievable sustainability strategy. FuturePlus' innovative platform married with the co-founders' deep knowledge, passion and commitment for sustainability, made my decision to invest an easy one. I look forward to providing my experience as a board advisor in supporting the company to scale and access new markets."
