Have you ever wondered if there is a convenient and accurate way to screen your business’ trading partners on their sustainability practices? Fear not; this is the solution that climate tech startup Givvable offers their clients.

The company builds an AI-powered platform for supplier sustainability that automates identifying and monitoring supplier sustainability and ESG data.

“In the past, organisations have used self-reported data and questionnaires to get information on the sustainability profile of their partners, but now, with regulatory and reporting requirements, organisations must have data-backed evidence of their claims, which can’t be satisfied through self-reported data,” explains Givvable COO Naomi Vowels in an email to e27.

“Givvable captures and tracks the sustainability profile of trading partners through 100 per cent verified data (i.e. no self-reported data). You can instantly look up the sustainability profile of a trading partner or have your entire supplier pool screened in bulk. We also provide tools for suppliers to self-register, complete modules, and improve their visibility to potential buyers, which are provided to suppliers for free.”

The platform also maps the sustainability profile of a supplier to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and corporate sustainability targets, making it easy for users to identify how a particular trading partner aligns with their sustainability goals.

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In developing the solutions, Givvable co-founders Naomi and Frances Vowels spent the first nine months undertaking more than 230 interviews with corporate and government officials to understand the problem they face with sustainability reporting.

“We created prototypes using Figma and other software to test the solution with three early adopters, who continue to be clients today, and did not build a single piece of tech or software until we were comfortable with the direction and roadmap,” Vowels says.

The co-founders both come from a financial services background and have seen many data challenges related to the ability to track the ESG profile of companies.

When they started investigating the space, they learned that this information was being captured in many organisations’ MS Excel, emails, and attachments. They are not systematically tracked or refreshed, quickly becoming out of date.

Further expansion in Asia

Within eight months of its launch, Vowels says that Givvable was able to secure its first international clients and has since expanded to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, India, the EU, and the UK.

It also became the first sustainability tech platform selected to be displayed in the Microsoft Singapore Experience Centre.

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“Our direct users are the sustainability and procurement teams of corporates and governments that must capture, track and report on the sustainability profile of their suppliers or trading partners. Many have set specific targets, such as all suppliers reporting emissions and disclosing actions to manage modern slavery risks, or have set social or local procurement or diversity targets. Or, they are responding to current or soon-to-be-implemented regulations, such as CSRD, that require reporting on the sustainability actions or profile of their value chain,” Vowels explains.

“Our indirect users access our data via partners, such as e-procurement, financial services companies, and e-commerce merchants.”

These clients can access Givvable’s quick search tool on a per-user-per-month fee. They can also access bulk screening tools on an annual subscription basis.

The Givvable team consists of 12 people who are split between three work streams: Sustainability, Data, and Dev/Product. The company has offices in Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

In addition to securing grants and prizes, Givvable has raised a pre-seed funding round in June 2022.

In 2024, the company plans to grow distribution through data partners and expand client coverage in Malaysia, Singapore and India.

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Image Credit: Givvable

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