Novata raises $30m

Novata has raised $30m in a series-B funding round, led by Hamilton Lane. Existing investors including the Ford Foundation, S&P Global and Novata’s founders contributed and were joined by Microsoft, which invested via its Climate Innovation Fund.

Additionally, partners and managing directors from several PE firms participated in the fundraise, including Canson Capital, Clearlake Capital, Hellman & Friedman, Kolhberg & Company, Lindsay Goldberg and The Vistria Group.

According to Novata’s CEO and co-founder Alex Friedman, the fresh funds will be deployed to enhance the company’s ESG data collection and onboarding capabilities. Further, Novata aims to tailor the platform’s design increasingly to its clients’ needs and improve analytics tools.

Friedman further commented: “We are grateful to the broad range of leading investors supporting Novata, including financial institutions, large technology companies, non-profit organisations and private equity firms, which underscores how major facets of global economic activity are coming together to address our most critical common challenges.”

“As sustainability priorities have undisputedly changed over the last decade, Novata is ideally positioned to meet the evolving challenges and to help drive progress on ESG transparency and reliability in the private markets.”

Brandon Middaugh, senior director, Climate Innovation Fund at Microsoft, added: “Better collection and use of enterprise data will create new opportunities for every organisation to achieve progress in addressing the world’s toughest environmental and societal problems. . Software technologies like Novata offer the capability to record and track sustainability metrics, informing corporate actions to build a more sustainable and inclusive future.”

Erik Hirsch, vice-chairman and head of strategic initiatives at Hamilton Lane, also commented: “We consider Novata to be the critical infrastructure needed to accelerate sustainability and strong governance in private markets,” . As our industry continues to grow, we all face increasing expectations from investors, regulators and broader society to ensure that strong investment performance is delivered alongside responsible business practices. Novata is exactly the kind of neutral intermediary the private markets ecosystem needs to collect the metrics that matter and put them in context.”

Earlier this month, Park Square capital joined Novata’s advisory committee, which consists of a group of GPs striving to improve ESG approaches in private equity.

The last year also saw Novata build out its offering through various partnerships, the latest of which, with Watershed, aims to enhance ESG disclosure and investor reporting.