Key ESG partners with EDCI

Key ESG has partnered with the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI) to integrate its APIs.

Key ESG is a software provider that aims to help GPs manage and report ESG performance by streamlining processes and automating reporting on its cloud-based platform.

Established in 2021 by Carlyle and Calpers, the EDCI emerged from conversations between GPs and LPs around the challenges of reporting ESG data. It strives to develop a set of manageable, core metrics as a baseline for ESG reporting.

The aim of the API integration is to allow the direct transfer of ESG metrics onto the EDCI platform, which provides a benchmark of more than 2,000 portfolio companies across the globe.

Heleen van Poecke, CEO and co-founder of Key ESG, commented: “Our objective is to make ESG reporting as seamless as possible for our users by supporting further standardisation of data-driven metrics and easy data submission to the EDCI benchmarks.”

When asked about how the API integration could help reduce confusion for GPs and LPs, van Poecke added: “While ESG regulations are different across jurisdictions and pose an added challenge for global GPs, the nice thing about the benchmarking initiative is that it is sector and geographically agnostic, as it relies on a key set of data points that is fast becoming a global private equity industry standard.”

To access the benchmarking data, GPs will need to sign up to the initiative and provide their own metrics first.

In January, Key ESG released a report signalling the importance of granularity in ESG data collection, as well as highlighting the reporting challenges portfolio companies are facing.