Six months after its launch, Ascentys enables more companies to improve their sustainability reporting. Based in Canton Jura, the startup provides a platform through which companies can automatically measure and report their ESG performance accurately. The company’s growing customer base includes companies in North and South America as well as Romande Energie.
With the requirements for companies to increase their sustainability reporting, more companies are seeking solutions to ease the data collection, analysis and reporting process. “Most of the data required to measure and report on a company’s ESG performance is already within the organisation, the challenge is to transform this generic company information into meaningful ESG data. For most companies, doing this across the full Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) spectrum is a daunting task”, explains Jerome Raguin, founder and CEO of Ascentys. Moreover, there are several market standards, making the reporting process complex for companies.
This is where Swiss startup Ascentys comes in. Focusing on automating ESG analysis and reporting, Jerome and his co-founder Ozge Ozdemir have built a platform on which customers can upload their documents and measure their performance. The tool scans the documents and using AI, extracts the most relevant information, processes this information and generates an ESG report, which includes Carbon Footprint Analysis, in a visual, simple and easy-to-understand manner.
The startup has assessed over 22 existing standards and frameworks to select variables that best work together. Based on the results, it has identified best-in-class parameters – a scorecard with 360 indicators relating to at least three existing frameworks and aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Besides reporting, the platform enables companies to measure and track their sustainability performance and follow up on their implementation strategy. The startup focuses on small and medium-sized organisations with up to 500 employees. However, the platform also allows the assessment of larger, publicly listed companies.
Growing customer base
After one year of working on their solution, the founding team incorporated the company in early 2022 and launched the solution later in the year. Since then, more companies have chosen Ascentys. The startup currently serves six customers, including Romande Energie, the leading electricity supplier in Western Switzerland and a mainstay in the Swiss energy industry. Beyond Switzerland, the startup has attracted customers from Argentina, the UK and US.
In addition to its growing customer base, the revenue-generating startup is benefiting from Innosuisse’s coaching program. Moving forward, the co-founders are working with a consortium to obtain the Innosuisse grant that will aid the further development of the platform.
A financing round is in sight
The team is now looking for its first equity investment to enhance its platform by improving its algorithms to accelerate the data evaluation process. Currently, the startup team combines human effort and technology to generate ESG reports in a few days. The AI-based tool will reduce the time to hours. The financing round will kick in in Q4 2022.
(RAN)
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