$10M in funding for ESG supply chain mapping
We had a brilliant chat with Sofia Busck, Chief Revenue Officer at Worldfavor. Worldfavor is a global #sustainability platform that helps companies access, manage and share sustainability information.
Sofia started her career in Management Consulting, but with a background in Engineering, missed the tech aspect — so joined Klarna in 2017, to combine her love of tech with growth strategy. Wanting to pursue her career in tech, she joined Worldfavor after falling in love with the way they not only drive growth, but also strive to make the world a better place.
Recently raising $10M in Series A funding, Worldfavour helps you drive transparency and sustainability in every step of your value chain. Worldfavour can help with sustainable #investment, sustainable sourcing, #supplychain visibility, or sustainability management.
Check out some highlights from our podcast below, where we chat about how the #ESG / #Climate reporting space has changed in the last few years, and some of the most pressing sustainability challenges facing founders and businesses
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Listen to the full podcast episode on:
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
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Wil: What was your journey to Worldfavour? And what were you doing before joining?
Sofia: I started my career within management consulting, and did that for five years. Having an engineering background I missed tech or technology. So I moved from there to join Klarna in 2017, where I had various roles. Most recently I was a part of building up the market expansion furnace. So it kind of combined tech strategy and growth which was super exciting to grow that. During my time at Klarna I think I fell in love with technology even more understanding how behaviours is a part of driving technological growth. So when I was mature enough to leave Klarna, I was looking for something in the tech space to continue. And I met with Lise, Chief Revenue Officer of Worldfavor. And I kind of fell in love with their way of not only driving business and growth, but also their true sense of wanting to make the world a better place, which really resonated with me and hence I joined Worldfavour.
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Wil: How have you seen ESG or climate reporting change in the last few years as both sustainability and let’s say recognition of the climate crisis has become a more kind of visible subject?
Sofia: If we looked at our current state of the world, we see higher expectations from stakeholders, and an increased focus on sustainability and transparency. As Worldfavor was very early on, in identifying the information gap between what companies know and what they need to know, and making the formed decision, this has really paid a tribute to our growth. We can also see that the global market for ESG, and climate reporting has exploded. And since those regulations are expected to increase, so we can also see our growth continue to grow significantly.
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Ksenia: What are some of the pressing sustainability challenges that you’ve seen are facing founders and businesses?
Sofia: I think, focus on sustainability is only increasing. But if we’re talking about the pressing issues, I mean, we have the societal issues, crisis in the surrounding of the world has proven to be a huge challenge for businesses, and their sustainability efforts, you know, inflation, war and the pandemic.
And of course, the climate crisis and the urgency for companies to become net zero. It is the fact that every company will need to track other company’s sustainability information in order to stay relevant. Companies are asked by customers, investors and clients and other stakeholders to keep track of that information to stay relevant and aligned with regulation. One of the main problems for most companies is that they can’t access this kind of data. So they want the data but they don’t know how to collect it.
And particularly pressing are the industries and businesses that are dependent on production, maybe a global supply chain, they have stakeholders all over the world, and a lot of suppliers and I think if you want me to give you a couple of examples, manufacturing industries, textile retails are very good examples of that. What we at Worldfavour have done is to solve the problem of gaining the information by creating a platform where organisation can access and share this information that is needed. And through our network effects, our platform is created like Information Hub. We have been able to leverage our customers to generate 30,000 companies in more than 140 countries. And I believe that we’re just getting started. So we’re just scratching the surface here. And we’ll continue with the work that we have done.
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Wil: You recently raised your $10 million series A at the end of last year — a massive congratulations from us here at Metta! Can you talk us through that process, and what Series A means for Worldfavour moving forward?
Sofia: We were super proud of raising Series A in the landscape that exists currently. We have always been selective in terms of who invests, who invests in Worldfavour. Without going in deeper into the financial details, I would say that we did this fund in order to continue our growth, continue expanding to new markets in a very sustainable way. We want to ensure that we continue to develop the platform based on customer behaviours, we would also like to ensure that our service and activities continue in the same pace as we’re growing so we could keep the level of service that we’ve done for our initial customer. And also it helps us attract the best talent and grow our chain, which is, as I think all of you know, essential to grow and scale up.
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Ksenia: What is your biggest piece of advice for anyone looking to incorporate sustainable business practices for their organisation?
Sofia: From my perspective, there are three items. The first piece would be to ensure to work with your suppliers. The key is to build relationships, create engagement, and implement small processes to work together on sharing information, that is what’s really going to drive sustainability.
The second piece I would mention is that don’t wait. Companies tend to think that they have a lot of time, but the future is now and prioritising sustainability corporate practices, that’s an investment to stay profitable and going forward, and the demands from regulators and customers is only going to increase and it’s a competitive advantage. So starting now will ensure that your competitors aren’t getting ahead of you.
And the third piece, I would say, is to take help. So a lot of customers, or companies are trying on their own, which is all well and great, but there are partners to arm hook with, who have done the mistakes before. So you don’t repeat some of the pitfalls that other companies have done, you can go directly to how do you say the, you know, winning concept or the stuff that really works? And that is done through partnerships I think. So — 1. working with your suppliers, 2. don’t wait, and 3. take help — would be my advice.
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Ksenia: So Sofia — fundraising complete, impact house launched, what does the future look like for Worldfavour, and what’s next?
Sofia: Worldfavour will continue its ambitious expansion and market entrepreneurs. This will be done to fill the global gap of easily accessing, sharing and gaining insights from ESG data to fuel sustainable actions. But at the same time, we will also invest in research and development to continually improve the platform, support our business in all stages of their sustainability journey, and provide you with the best possible product. I mean, this is essentially what we serve the market with. To mention other goals ahead, I mean, the expansion and growth developing the platform to be the best and most user friendly, and continue to attract the best talent.
More about Worldfavor
Worldfavor is a global sustainability platform that helps companies access, manage and share sustainability information. Over 30,000 organisations and over 140 countries are using one or a mix of Worldfavor’s solutions to easily share and access sustainability data from one single place.
Recently raising $10M in Series A funding, Worldfavour helps you drive transparency and sustainability in every step of your value chain. Worldfavour can help with sustainable investment, sustainable sourcing, supply chain visibility, or sustainability management.
A huge thank you again to Sofia for joining us on the #MettaTalks podcast. You can connect with Sofia on LinkedIn, and learn more about Worldfavor on their website.
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Listen to the full podcast episode on :
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
Check out some of our other articles —
- How to make your startup both innovative and sustainable
- How to “Speak Startup” in the PR World
- Financial Planning with Impact
- Ecosystems Thinking
- 15 years in Climate Tech — What’s Changed?
- Analysing Iraq’s Startup Ecosystem
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#Metta #MettaTalks #MettaTalksPodcast #startup #founders #ecosystem #entrepreneur #sustainability #techforgood #womenintech #femalefounders #DEIintech #inclusivityintech #esg #esgreporting #greenwashing
