CHENNAI: Richa and Abhishek never worked in a corporate setting before but they soon realised how large the ecosystem of the Corporate Social Responsibility sector is and the gap in the flow of information and capital in it. Hence, they developed a global CSR and sustainability management technology platform, Goodera, that helps solve the need for corporations and nonprofit organisations have a last mile visibility of progress and impact measurement of their CSR projects.
Richa Bajpai, founder and co-CEO, says, “There are billions of dollars flowing through this sector annually. This sector is the third largest employer in the US after manufactures and retail sectors. Since it needs more transparency, we developed Goodera in 2014.”
While working on a startup on renewable energy, the two learned how the CSR sector and NGOs work. They observed that there was a huge difference in what happened on the field and what was communicated in the boardroom of the corporates. Abhishek Humbad, founder and coCEO, says, “Unlike other functions in the corporate, say HR, there are no ways to manage a CSR activity. With Goodera’s cloud technology, you just have to log in the platform and you can get the status of the project in different sectors and locations on your dashboard.”
The platform helps all stakeholders, be it corporates, donors or foundations, to monitor and evaluate the work at any given point of time and understand the progress of each project. Thus, it also allows implementation of corrective plans if required.
Richa adds, “The NGO partners enter the information from the field and since it is real time, recorded on Google map, the information cannot be easily fudged up.” Abhishek explains, “It covers all steps from the start. Once a corporate logs in, it can look for the sectors it would like to work in and selects the NGO after reviewing their applications. They can then get their employees to volunteer for the project.”
More than 150 large enterprises including 24 in Global Fortune 500 have adopted Goodera to measure, manage and report their CSR projects across more than 30 countries including China and Sri Lanka. They claim that 10% of corporate India’s total CSR spend is managed on Goodera and two lakh employees globally volunteer using Goodera.
Goodera secured its Series A Round of funding $5.5mn from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network. Varsha Rao, previously head of Global Operations at Airbnb also participated along with other prominent angels. Abhishek says, “India is the first country in the world with legislated CSR and this has become an advantage. Since we started from India, this has already put us ahead of other countries.” But being the first players, they need to educate the stakeholders in the sector to build an ecosystem to create a larger social impact. Goodera is co-headquartered in Bengaluru and Menlo Park, US.
About Goodera 150 large
enterprises including 24 in Global Fortune 500 have adopted Goodera
Around 10% of corporate India’s total CSR spend is managed on Goodera
Two lakh employees globally volunteer using Goodera.
Secured $5.5mn in Series A round of funding
App available on Android and iOS
For details, visit: goodera.com