Three reasons why we backed Social Value Portal
Maria Wagner takes a look at our recent addition to our UK portfolio: Social Value Portal, a leading platform for social impact measurement
We’ve all heard the saying: “What gets measured, gets done.” In the digital era, we are used to measuring everything, from clicks to comments to CAC. Yet, there is one area that remained tough to quantify: social impact. How do you measure social impact?
There is increasing pressure on businesses and governments for greater transparency and accountability for the impact that they have on their communities, particularly in the current Covid environment. However, traditionally there has been a lack of a standardised framework that is auditable and comparable across industries and regions.
It is this problem that Guy Battle and his team are solving with Social Value Portal, a SaaS platform that enables organisations to measure, track and analyse the ‘social value’ they generate. Beringea has led a £3m investment into the business and below is a little summary of our thesis.
From profit to purpose: a shifting focus
“To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” Larry Fink, CEO of the $7tn fund manager Blackrock, made this evocative call to chief executives in 2018. And he is not the only voice calling for change: The Business Roundtable — a collection of around 200 of America’s most influential companies including JPMorgan, Amazon and General Motors — published a ‘statement of purpose’ in 2019 rejecting the principle of ‘shareholder primacy’ emphasising the bottom line, and calling for a focus on the wellbeing of customers, workers, suppliers and communities.
But what is driving this now? There is increasing pressure on corporates and asset managers on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reporting. The UN laid the foundations for ESG in a 2004 report “Who Cares Wins”. In 2015, all UN member countries agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 to address climate change, inequality and sustainable growth. 90% of global fund managers now incorporate ESG as part of their decision-making process for risk management. ESG-focused funds took in c.$70bn of assets in 2019 while traditional funds saw c.$200bn in outflows; spurred by the pandemic, Q2 2020 saw a record-breaking $71bn inflow into global sustainable funds. This is further enhanced by the entry of millennials into their prime earning years — it’s a generation that is much more sensitive to ESG issues and want to invest in and consume products that speak to their values.
In the public sector in the UK, the rising importance of social purpose had begun with the introduction of the Social Value Act of 2012. The Act encourages local government bodies to include social impact as one of the deciding factors on awarding procurement contracts, which are worth £100bn per year.
Although some progress has been made to measure and track progress on the “E” and “G” aspects of ESG reporting, the “S” is even more difficult to measure.
Social Value Portal was founded in 2014 to address this urgent need for a scalable platform that could measure social impact in an objective, transparent manner, analyse and audit the data and benchmark the results. It has grown rapidly to support multiple organisations in the UK as they begin to capture the social value of their work and set targets to meet in the future.
A team of pioneers
It is not often that we meet with founders that have shaped government legislation in their sector, particularly in an industry as nascent as social impact measurement. With more than 25 years of experience in sustainability — as an entrepreneur, sustainability consultant at Deloitte and MP advisor — Guy is one of few people with decades of knowledge in the sector.
Under Guy’s leadership, Social Value Portal has developed the National TOMs, a social-value measurement framework backed by the Local Government Association as well as a Taskforce made up of public and private sector experts in the matter. The National TOMs also map to the UN SDGs which enables monitoring progress against these goals. The depth of experience and expertise required to deliver this comprehensive framework underlines the credibility of Social Value Portal.
This in combination with a tech platform to ingest, digest and analyse the data at scale makes it a powerful and sticky solution for customers for the long-term.
Creating network effects
Social Value Portal enables organisations to understand the social impact of not just their own operations but also their supply chains. Customers introduce the platform to their partner organisations (be it their suppliers or their customers) as it’s more convenient to use the same language and the same platform; and then those partners introduce it to their other own suppliers or customers, creating a viral effect. This has also enabled Social Value Portal to make its first steps beyond the UK, with global companies seeking to roll-out its innovative technology across their international operations.
SVP is also leveraging the data to create benchmarks by industry and region and bring transparency on best practices. It enables organisations to set social goals (not just profit goals) and to differentiate themselves vs. competitors to their investors, clients and partners.
SVP has already unlocked more than £2bn in social value for its customers, and we are certain that it will play a pivotal role in driving corporate social responsibility. What gets measured, gets done.
