Summary
Matter is a sustainability insights company which moves beyond traditional ESG ratings. Matter utilises the latest technologies and harnesses collective intelligence to provide some of the world's largest investors with the most objective, granular and holistic picture of their investment's social and environmental impact.
Description of fintech solution
Matter offers a suite of solutions for investors looking to understand and optimise the sustainability of their solutions and report across multiple frameworks, including SFDR and the SDGs. We draw our data from four different sources.
1. Company Reported Impact Metrics - This is quantitative, self-reported environmental and social data, covering a range of themes from CO2 Emissions, to Waste Generation and CEO to Worker Pay Ratio.
2. Third party thematic flags - Matter works with over 40 expert sources, including NGOs, Academia, thinktanks and beyond, each at the forefront of understanding a given area of company social and environmental performance. From deforestation, to human rights, to diversity & inclusion, to supply chain insights, Matter provides over 385 flags providing an unparalleled outside-in perspective on companies.
3. SDG Revenue Alignment - In collaboration with BNP Paribas Asset Management, Matter developed SDG Fundamentals, a proprietary dataset which aligns the revenue generated from the products and services of over 50,000 companies, aligned with each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
3. Sentiment Data - Utilising the latest technologies in the fields of Machine Learning and sentiment analysis, Matter has developed SDG Signals, a Natural Language Processing Model which analyses millions of sentences from Global News Media and determines how the companies in your portfolio are being spoken about, aligned to each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This allows investors to spot sustainability risks and opportunities months before more traditional ESG data.
The combination of these four provides investors with a range of use cases, from portfolio analysis and optimisation, to thematic product creation, to reporting on regulations such as the EU SFDR, to optimising quantitative trading models and beyond.
These insights are available either via an interactive and customisable online platform, in dataset format, or via integration so you can show your end users the sustainability of their investments.
Describe your key innovations
Matter's key innovations are both in their technological and methodological approaches, but also in their theory of change.
1. Theory of change - Increasingly, it is apparent that ESG in its current format is no longer fit for purpose, with subjective ratings methodologies and a lack of transparency holding back the industry. Matter's approach is to say that truly sustainable investing must start with quality, trustworthy data. This data should be as detailed, granular and transparent as possible, stemming from objective, expert sources, as well as utilising the latest developments in technologies. By doing this, Matter moves beyond the black box world of ESG ratings, offering a multi-faceted and holistic data landscape, providing investors with all of the information they need to make evidence-based sustainable investments.
2. Innovations in methodology and technology - Matter harnesses collective intelligence, working with third-party expert sources from the fields of civil society, academia, think tanks, governments to go beyond what is available through company-self reported data. In addition, Matter is using innovative technological and methodological approaches to grow understanding of company alignment with the SDGs. Through 'SDG Fundamentals' Matter has developed a dataset showing how the revenue of over 50,000 companies is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Through 'SDG Signals', Matter analyses the sentiment of 60,000+ articles from Global News Media daily to understand how companies are being perceived aligned with the SDGs. Both of these solutions represent significant advancements in our understand of how companies contribute to the SDGs, both positively and negatively. Improving the quality of data on the SDGs is essential if they are to be achieved by 2030.
Founder's Background
Niels Fibæk Jensen - Educational background in International Business and Politics from CBS, Professional background in the United Nations
Emil Fuglsang - Educational background in International Business and Politics from CBS, Professional background in the United Nations
Founded (Years of Incorporation)
2017
How are you funded today?
Series A
Money Raised
Approximately 5 million EUR
Number of employees
28
Presence In Region
Global
Technology
ESG
HQ Country
Copenhagen
What are the top 3 key benefits your solution will bring to the Asset Management Industry?
1. Flexibility - the diversity of our solutions allows investors to understand the SDG alignment of their investments, report on SFDR, perform in depth analysis, reporting and optimisation of their investment across 400 sustainability themes and metrics, all on one platform.
2. Transparency - claims of sustainability without transparency as to their source are meaningless. With Matter, investors can always see the source of the insights that they are viewing.
3. Granularity & Objectivity - We are not normative, in that we don't place subjective value judgements or weighting methodologies on which elements of sustainability we find most important. Nor do we prioritise insights which are most financially material. Our goal is to provide investors with the broadest, most detailed and most objective picture possible as to the sustainability of their investments, financially material or not. This kind of disaggregated data allows investors to comply with regulation, but more than that, allows them to invest in what is important to them, rather than what a data provider says is important.
Do you have any case studies of your solution? If yes, please share it in less than 200 words
Singlife with Aviva, a financial services company headquartered in Singapore appointed Matter to provide a comprehensive view of its sustainability performance. Kim Rosenkilde, Singlife's Group Chief Investment Officer said 'Monitoring, mitigating and disclosing various environmental risks in our investments is a complex task, requiring transparent data and precise analyses. Matter's platform helps us gain some of these insights in a fast and transparent way. We see a big potential to enable ESG reporting in more of our services. We ultimately want to help our clients achieve financial freedom, and we also want to help them understand exactly where and how their money is being invested in.
