YvesBlue announced today the close of a $2M seed round of venture financing led by Illuminate Financial Management with participation from SixThirty, Tribeca Early Stage, and other strategic investors including George Fox, the CEO and founder of Titan Advisors.
Following the incubation within Flat World Partners, this financing represents the first outside funding of the company. The new capital will be directed towards further technology development and customer growth. Illuminate Financial Management also joins YvesBlue's Board of Directors in this transaction.
"Impact and ESG analysis has become increasingly important both within financial markets but also beyond and it is clear that there is a huge opportunity for companies that can enable the kind of analysis that regulators, private investors and the public at large are demanding," said Mark Beeston, Founder and Managing Partner at Illuminate Financial Management who will join the board of the company. "As financial markets begin to integrate ESG information into decision making processes YvesBlue is uniquely placed to be a core part of that process: they are collating disparate data sets and enabling investors to understand and analyse the broader impact of their multi-asset portfolios. We're excited to be backing such a promising company who we believe have the talent and positioning to define the market standard in ESG analysis."
YvesBlue has partnered with ESG data providers such as Truvalue Labs to offer data analytics integration and cross asset class ESG and impact coverage and reporting. Their current solution enables wealth managers, asset managers, and their clients to analyze ESG risks and opportunities in the market as well as provide instantaneous impact and ESG reports on and transparency into their portfolios. YvesBlue is the first player in the market to offer robust and flexible solutions for teams to integrate their own data assessments and centralize ESG work, layering on models and front-end reporting solutions.
The combination of YvesBlue's flexible solution and layered ESG models will allow clients to custom build reports and manage their ESG assessment within a singular SaaS solution. The system is driven by cutting edge data and analytical models that it transforms into visually appealing and intuitive reports useful to clients and investors alike.
Joel Brightfield, Partner at SixThirty Ventures stated "ESG has progressed from a subject of principles to a driver of value. The YvesBlue platform meets a large and growing need for aggregated, cohesive and visual information about the ESG risks and growth opportunities of the companies that make up investment portfolios and funds. Anna-Marie and her team's background in impact investments gives YvesBlue a natural head start and the right to be the standard bearer for consistent, transparent and unbiased ESG data and analytics."
YvesBlue was born out of the longstanding research and execution of Flat World Partners within ESG and impact investing. It seeks to build innovative solutions to move the needle is assets being allocated into more sustainable and impactful investments. Founded by Anna-Marie Wascher and Michael T. Smith, YvesBlue offers robust analytics and reporting across asset classes, including public equity, fixed income and private equity.
YvesBlue's team is full-stack—chemical engineering, environmental research, computer science, and machine learning. The team comes from leaders in their respective industries such as Ellevest, SS&C Technologies, MSCI, Groupe la Française, YesWare, Swell, JustWorks, Addepar and Moody's.
