Participated · Series A · Nov 2021

Novata offers a technology platform and ESG solution designed to help private-market investors collect, manage, and analyze non-financial data. The platform streamlines data collection, provides benchmarking and analytics, and contextualizes metrics to inform reporting and action. Novata launched commercially in April 2022 and added benchmarking capabilities in November 2022 to enable comparisons against public and private market industry averages. The company reports more than 3,500 private companies contracted to use its platform. Novata positions itself as a neutral, partner-agnostic intermediary to improve ESG transparency and reliability across the private markets. It is structured as a public benefit corporation and is majority controlled by mission-driven organizations and its employees. Novata offers a three-part, open-architecture ESG solution for private markets that includes a streamlined ESG reporting framework, a contributory database, and a secure, fee-based platform for data capture, analysis, reporting and benchmarking. The company positions its framework as free for all companies immediately to leverage, with a paid platform for objective ESG data and benchmarking against private and public peers. Novata was formed in partnership with the Ford Foundation, S&P Global, Hamilton Lane and Omidyar Network and is majority-controlled by mission-driven organizations and its employees. Beta customers are slated to access the platform before the end of the year, with broad access due to launch in early 2022. The company emphasizes an ecosystem approach that brings together non-profit and for-profit sectors to drive impact toward inclusive capitalism. Novata’s founding consortium and approach aim to address fragmentation in private-market ESG standards.